Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Food price fears as US warns on crop yields
Financial Times ^ | 11-09-10 | Gregory Meyer / Jack Farchy

Posted on 11/10/2010 6:26:11 AM PST by Red Badger

The spectre of inflation loomed over agricultural markets after the US slashed key crop forecasts and warned of shortfalls in grains.

The agriculture department on Tuesday cut estimates of US corn yields for a third successive month, forecast record soyabean exports to China and warned of the slimmest cotton stocks since 1925.

(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Extended News; US: Iowa; US: Nebraska
KEYWORDS: biofuel; corn; economy; energy; greenieweenies; obama; stuckonstupid
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-72 last
To: tatsinfla
The CRP program is not, as the article exclusively describes, a pay-the-farmer-not-to-farm setup. Nor is WRP and one more program that I forget the name of at the moment.

It would be more accurately described as a land lease by the government to landowners, whether they be farmers or not. The programs put the land into conservation or some other limited use for periods of 10-30 years, at a set price per acre. The lands continue to be used for hunting and other recreation.

What the article does not state, and in most instances is the case, that for every acre that is put into CRP, there is a like amount of land coming out of CRP, WRP and other programs to become farm land again.

We have some property that borders ours that has been into and out of conservation programs 3 times in the past 50-some-odd years. It is in many cases, a longer term form of crop rotation, since the trees are harvested for wood and paper purposes. It is good for the land, wildlife and the environment in general.

I am not a big proponent of government dollars being used in these programs, but they are largely misunderstood by folks as being some sort of farm subsidy. Putting it under the Department of Agriculture only reinforces this misunderstanding. It is really aggravating to have this misconception repeated over and over again.

61 posted on 11/10/2010 9:13:02 AM PST by JustaDumbBlonde (Don't wish doom on your enemies. Plan it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: JustaDumbBlonde
Farm Program Pays $1.3 Billion to People Who Don't Farm"
62 posted on 11/10/2010 9:16:07 AM PST by Netizen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: Texas Fossil

Do you think those democrat neighbors will share their food
with you if push comes to shove?


63 posted on 11/10/2010 9:18:19 AM PST by upcountryhorseman (An old fashioned conservative)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: JustaDumbBlonde

An agricultural subsidy is a governmental subsidy paid to farmers and agribusinesses to supplement their income, manage the supply of agricultural commodities, “and influence the cost and supply of such commodities.”

read the last line....


64 posted on 11/10/2010 9:18:57 AM PST by tatsinfla
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: upcountryhorseman
Do you think those democrat neighbors will share their food with you if push comes to shove?

Yes, they are good hearted people, just dumb as dirt.

65 posted on 11/10/2010 10:42:06 AM PST by Texas Fossil (Government, even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: Texas Fossil

My experience is that very few people who have not farmed on their own know little about farm production and what it takes to put food on the table.

The work is hard, the stress is worse, the thanks are non-existent, the risks are through the roof. If prices are low and food is abundant people are happy and they don’t care that farmers are going broke or they believe the government is giving them millions.

When prices are high because crops are in short supply people think farmers are getting rich off of them when in reality most farmers are hurting because their yields are down.

This is the reason that the average age of farmers is 57. Most farmers don’t encourage their children to farm, they want better for their children and they know that the only way out of farming is bankruptcy or death.


66 posted on 11/10/2010 11:32:29 AM PST by tiki
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Texas Fossil

I think it has gotten worse in the last 20 years, I think the CBOT has very little to do with production and everything to do with speculation. Once upon a time you could market your crops by following reality but now it just seems to be on the whims of traders.


67 posted on 11/10/2010 11:36:21 AM PST by tiki
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: Smokin' Joe

OMG! YOu are so right. The new cotton pickers cost half a million! We farm with 40 and 50 year old tractors that we bought used, I can’t even imagine buying something new. I know there has to be farmers out there who can afford them but I just don’t happen to know them.


68 posted on 11/10/2010 11:43:45 AM PST by tiki
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: tiki
Up here, most farming is dry land wheat farming--the tractors, even though center articulated, tend to be too large to turn around in the tobacco fields of my youth.

Bought new, a tractor, grain drill (especially no-till) seed hopper, combine, trucks and grain bins easily add up to a million dollars--and the area farmed is usually measured in 'sections' (a square mile, more or less, roughly 640 acres).

69 posted on 11/10/2010 12:18:50 PM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]

To: Red Badger
I would trust a man with cow poop on his boots before a man with Bruno Maglis on his feet...

LOL--Trust him to do what? Shovel crap, or expand your farm?

70 posted on 11/10/2010 5:12:42 PM PST by 1rudeboy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: Toddsterpatriot
The CBOT is magic. They make the long and short side of the same contract lose money /sarc

Can you believe it? That's why everyone has a seat at the CBOT. Except for the guy with poop on his boots, who can't choose a winner.

71 posted on 11/10/2010 5:22:35 PM PST by 1rudeboy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: Balding_Eagle
Seesh you worry mongers have no idea what the American Farmer can do.

In the area I grew up in at least 30% of the farmland is unused at any given time. Not from normal crop rotation but just unused.

If corn and grain priced get up there trust me the farmers will start using that land again.

When corn per bushel went from $2 to $6 several years back, dust webs were blown off the equipment and much of that land immediately went back into production...and my Dad's neighbor still had 2 silos of corn he could not sell because the price dropped. (I think he has since sold it because the price has gone back up)

I'm not worried.

72 posted on 11/10/2010 8:03:29 PM PST by hoyt-clagwell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-72 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson