In October 2008, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the largest and most sophisticated scientific instrument ever built was dedicated at CERN ( the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva, Switzerland. Among other things, the LHC was designed to try to determine if the Higgs boson exists. Apparently, that is very important to nuclear physicists, but probably not on the top of the list for the average Minyan.

However, there is another project underway at CERN that should be very important to Minyans and everyone else on Earth.

This project is known as CLOUD (Cosmics Leaving Outdoor Droplets), which is designed to investigate the possible influence of galactic cosmic particles on Earth's clouds and climate. The CLOUD experiment is based on the original research of a Danish Physicist named Hedrick Svensmark.

Svensmark and his colleagues published a paper in 2006 that described the results of an experiment that duplicated the conditions of the lower atmosphere when the upper atmosphere was bombarded with particles.

They discovered that certain particles from cosmic particle collisions higher in the atmosphere travel to the lower atmosphere and release electrons that catalyze the formation of cloud condensation nuclei. Water vapor molecules coalesce on these nuclei to start a cloud droplet. Thus, more cosmic particles increase cloud formation, which has a cooling effect on the Earth.

If cosmic particles control variations in clouds, what does this have to do with sunspots? That answer is fairly straight forward. When the sun is active, meaning that there are lots of sunspots, the eruption of charged particles increases the strength of the sun’s magnetic field. Since cosmic particles are charged particles, they are deflected by the stronger magnetic field AWAY from the Earth.

Thus, more sunspots cause fewer particles get to Earth, fewer clouds are formed, and the Earth warms up. With fewer sunspots more cosmic particles reach Earth, producing more clouds and the Earth cools. Simple, elegant, not manmade, doesn’t involve CO2 in any way, and it makes Al Gore sad; talk about a winning theory!

The cold weather isn’t the only problem out there for wheat. The next big problem is UG99, a fungus from the stem rust family. It was first discovered in Uganda in 1999 (thus the UG99 name) and has spread eastward with the winds. It is now in Iran and will eventually reach the major wheat productions areas in Pakistan and India, where one billion people rely on wheat for much of their food. Hunger has a way of increasing geopolitical risk in places where we don’t need any more.

Unlike other rusts which reduce crop yields, UG99 is capable of 100% crop loss in infected fields. Crop scientists estimate that 80% of all wheat varieties are at risk from UG99. The only way to stop this is to develop new strains of wheat with genes that are resistant to UG99. That work is under way, but it will be a huge since all the wheat seed in the world will be needed to be replaced with resistant varieties.

So, how do you play it? You could open a futures account and buy wheat directly, but as usual in this day and age, there are ETFs for almost everything - PowerShares DB Agriculture (DBA) and Market Vectors Global Agribusiness (MOO).

DBA directly owns futures contracts on corn, soybeans, sugar, and wheat each at approximately 25% of the portfolio. MOO tracks the Daxglobal Agribusiness Index, which is comprised of many of the largest agricultural stocks in the world.

DBA is a much purer play on the direct impact of a wheat shortage, plus a bad wheat crop doesn’t help a farmer’s cash flow to buy new equipment. DBA is the way to play it.

More on the CO2 issue later.