As the world’s markets and ETFs recover from the beating they took in the market meltdown, attention is turning toward what could well be the next crisis: agriculture.

The primary reason that agriculture is gaining attention is the basic imbalance in supply and demand: populations continue to expand and food production continues to decline. The Economist states that there are other causes for the imbalance, as well:

Agricultural Commodity ETFs and ETNs

Unleveraged Mixed Agricultural Commodity ETFs and ETNs

• E-TRACS UBS Bloomberg CMCI Agriculture Index ETN (UAG)
• E-TRACS UBS Bloomberg CMCI Food Index ETN (FUD)
• iPath Dow Jones-AIG Agriculture Subindex Total Return ETN (JJA)
• iPath Dow Jones-AIG Grains Subindex Total Return ETN (JJG)
• iPath Dow Jones-AIG Livestock Subindex Total Return ETN (COW)
• iPath Dow Jones-UBS Softs [coffee, cotton and sugar] Subindex Total Return ETN (JJS)
• MLCX Biofuels Index ELEMENTS ETF (FUE)
• MLCX Grains Index ELEMENTS ETF (GRU)
• PowerShares DB Agriculture Fund ETF (DBA)
• Rogers International Commodity Index – Agriculture ELEMENTS ETN (RJA)

The threat of a swine flu outbreak has the potential to impact numerous areas of the domestic and international equity markets: pharmaceutical companies could get a big boost, or see their efforts to develop vaccines go largely unrewarded. Tourism-intensive sectors and countries could see their revenues plummet, or could go get away unscathed. But concerns about swine flu are impacting the prices of several other assets, including one you might not expect: orange juice.

The market has struggled in recent years, but this flu season anxious consumers have been guzzling orange juice in an effort to ward off the disease that is already widespread in nearly every state. Combined with a shrinking orange crop in Florida, increased demand related to H1N1 has sent juice prices soaring in recent months. Since September, the November frozen, concentrated orange juice contract on the ICE has increased more than 20%, according to the Wall Street Journal.