A strong food and agriculture system is fundamental to economic growth, poverty reduction, environmental sustainability, and human health. The Agriculture and Food Series is intended to prompt public discussion and inform policies that will deliver higher incomes, reduce hunger, improve sustainability, and generate better health and nutrition from the food we grow and eat. It expands on the former Agriculture and Rural Development series by considering issues from farm to fork, in both rural and urban settings. Titles in this series undergo internal and external review under the management of the World Bank's Agriculture and Food Global Practice.

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Declining prices have followed two recent price spikes in 2007/08 and 2010/11 to 2012/13 that brought an era of higher and more volatile commodity prices that is quite different from the previous years of depressed prices. Declining petroleum prices combined with excellent global harvests brought the lowest market prices in many years. Are current policies tuned to these market conditions? We begin with a review of past policy evolution that took place in the European Union (EU) and United States (US), and then look at recent reforms and prospects for policy changes in the context of likely changes in the global market and policy environment over the next decade. Since agricultural policies generally evolve in response to internal and external pressures in a political economy context, we explore how the outlook of commodity markets may influence the directions of policies and the decision making environment for farmers.

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