I’ve been warning about the coming food shortages and food inflation for months, and more people rely on less farmers to feed them and those farmers must pay higher prices to grow crops. Jim Rogers reacts to the spike in wheat prices by saying what smart people knew all along, food is going to get more and more expensive:

The July rise in wheat prices, the fastest in 51 years, indicates that shortages in agriculture are coming, Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings, told CNBC.com Tuesday.

Wheat prices in Europe hit their highest level in two years, rising almost 50 percent since late June as Russia’s wheat crop was affected by drought.

“That’s the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Rogers, who has been warning about shortages coming in the agriculture sector for a while, said in a telephone interview.

“We’re going to have much, much higher prices over the next few years,” Rogers, a hedge-fund pioneer who started the Quantum Fund with George Soros in the 1970s, added.

Investors finally began to realize that prices for agricultural commodities have been too low for too long because of subsidies and other factors, which made agriculture an unattractive area for workers, he explained.

“Be prepared, if you have a sugar bowl home go fill it up because it’s going to be more expensive,” he said.

“Anybody who’s got potentially good agriculture land and good weather” is likely to emerge a winner out of this situation because prices of nearly all agricultural commodities are set for steep rises, Rogers said.

“Prices aren’t high enough and most people don’t believe it,” he said. “Unless prices are high you’re not going to attract people in the business. Eventually people will go into farming again but it’s going to take a while.”

Shortages in agriculture are likely to add to problems created by governments who printed money to spend their way out of the financial crisis, according to Rogers.

“It’s all happening at a time when governments are printing more money… it’s a very dangerous situation,” he said.

Roger’s advice is for investors, but his message is clear to all of us. Food is a commodity that will be increasing in price, so your family should be preparing for a future where food will become increasingly harder to get. Storing long lasting foods (including wheat and rice) will save you money in the long term. Learning to grow your own food, even if you don’t have much room, will help offset the price increases we’re going to see. How much of a price increase? In England they’re predicting at least a 10% increase by the end of this year.

Most big box stores with good online presences sell grains and rice in bulk buckets for cheap. I’ve found 35lbs of wheat seed for $50 on Amazon. Frankly I prefer to just hit the can sales at my local market but I know many of you out there enjoy a more cooking from scratch kind of existence. I’m happy with canned corn and tomato soup. Which I have a lot of.

I cannot stress this enough. You must start buying long lasting foods now while they are still reasonably priced. Canned foods, rice, beans, sugar, flour and honey. Fears of global wheat shortages are only the beginning. All food prices will rise in the next few years, some to levels that will make them unattainable. Deflation in our economy may make things cheaper in the short term but it will put many agri-businesses under too much stress. Your extra money right now should, at least in part, go to having a fully stocked pantry, a good garden and if you can maybe a couple of chickens.

Food will be the new gold in the near future.