"Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it." This is an old cliche, the truth of which has never been more evident than during the last three years. Although the propensity to discuss weather is universal, those of us involved with agriculture sometimes seem obsessed with the subject. We cannot escape it. The predominant role played by weather in crop production is obvious. What is not so obvious, except to those of us directly involved, is the ripple effect that weather causes for the entire food chain, for agricultural markets and, yes, for the politics of agriculture.The last three years have seen adverse weather conditions create crop production problems among major producing countries and regions literally a...