Wheat may not have the same glitter as gold, but in the past year, investors have found much to please the eye and pocket in fields of billowing crops. Agricultural goods - known in market-speak as "softs" - are the latest to join a commodity boom that has already pushed up prices of oil, copper and nickel, buttressed by demand from emerging tigers such as China.

Melbourne: Cereals form a staple diet for the majority of cuisines around the world, but now a scientist has cautioned that climate change can actually lead to "killer cornflakes" having the most potent liver toxin ever reported.