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Farmer Creates Corn Maze Out of Sarah Palin's ImageLast Edited: Wednesday, 24 Sep 2008, 11:39 PM EDT A farm in Ohio has created a corn maze of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. (MyFoxToledo) WHITEHOUSE, Ohio -- From the helicopter you can see it clearly, Republican vice-presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's face in a corn maze (video: MyFoxToledo). Duke Wheeler of Whitehouse, Ohio, who owns the Butterfly House and surrounding farm, said he did it to bring people to the farm this fall. **SNIP** It wasn't an easy process. "We contracted with an artist in Idaho who drew the picture...

Biden Ranked Coal Ahead Of High-Fructose Corn Syrup And A Terrorist Attack As More Likely To Contribute To The Death Of An Average American. HBO's Bill Maher:

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Up to 12.3 billion bushels of corn are expected to be harvested this season in the U.S., despite the recent Mississippi flooding which inundated many farms in the Midwest. With 600 million extra bushels for the summer harvest, it will be the second-highest corn yield on record, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.Prior to the confirmation of the bountiful harvest, there were fears the Midwest flooding could lead to food shortages and major economic losses for American farmers. Before perfect weather was enjoyed by farmers recently, corn future prices rose to $8 per bushel. On...

Des Moines, Iowa (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate John McCain didn't mince words Friday at the Iowa State Fair, telling corn producers he didn't want to subsidize their ethanol but was eager to help market farm products around the world. "My friends, we will disagree on a specific issue and that's healthy," McCain said as he stood near bales of straw at one of the nation's premier farming showcases. "I believe in renewable fuels. I don't believe in ethanol subsidies, but I believe in renewable fuels." McCain has never been shy about speaking against subsidizing ethanol when he is in...

Call Congress back to have an up-or-down vote on a comprehensive energy bill which includes expanded drilling for oil. There is a petition here: http://www.callbackcongress.com/

2008 Corn & Soybean Yield Expectations In Midwest Study URBANA, Ill. - A new study by University of Illinois agricultural economists projects that average 2008 corn yields could be reduced by 2.9 bushels per acre in Illinois, 3.5 bushels in Indiana, and 6.3 bushels in Iowa due to later-than-normal planting and above-normal precipitation in May. Soybean yields may be down 1.1 bushels, 0.4 bushels, and 1.0 bushels per acre, respectively, in those same states for the same reasons.

The Guardian claims to have a confidential World Bank report which concludes that biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% — more than the IMF estimate of 20-30%, and far more than the US government’s claims that biofuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. The Guardian and the New York Times suggest the World Bank report is being held back to avoid conflict with the US, though bank chief Robert Zoellick has been vocal about the problem.The Guardian’s reporting on this is fairly shoddy, throwing around percentages without a time frame. Nevertheless, it is fairly clear...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind., July 1 (UPI) -- A Purdue economist says U.S. corn demand is exceeding supply and, combined with Midwestern flood losses, ethanol production might soon stall. Purdue University agricultural economist Chris Hurt says with higher corn prices, fewer ethanol producers can afford the feedstock. In turn, domestic livestock producers and foreign buyers are finding it more difficult to obtain grain. "Everybody is trying to evaluate how many bushels of corn we've lost because of weather-related damage, what the implications are for prices and who can pay these high prices," said Hurt. Using a similar 1993 Midwest flood as...

Maize (Corn) May Have Been Domesticated In Mexico As Early As 10,000 Years AgoVarious unusually colored and shaped maize from Latin America. (Credit: Photo by Keith Weller / courtesy of USDA/Agricultural Research Service) ScienceDaily (June 27, 2008) — The ancestors of maize originally grew wild in Mexico and were radically different from the plant that is now one of the most important crops in the world. While the evidence is clear that maize was first domesticated in Mexico, the time and location of the earliest domestication and dispersal events are still in dispute. Now, in addition to more traditional macrobotanical...

USDA to report acreage; analysts warn of $10 corn and possible supply crisisSAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Recent Midwest flooding may have damaged millions of acres of corn crops, analysts expect the U.S. Department of Agriculture to say in its crop acreage report slated for release Monday. The loss of acreage could slash U.S. corn production and push the 2009 season's year-end stocks to the lowest level since just after World War II, analysts said. And the real damage is likely to be even worse than what Monday's 8:30 a.m. EDT report will show, as it's still too early to evaluate...

Ancient Mexican maize varieties Maize was first domesticated in the highlands of Mexico about 10,000 years ago and is now one of the most important crop plants in the world. It is a member of the grass family, which also hosts the world's other major crops including rice, wheat, barley, sorghum, and sugar cane. As early agriculturalists selected plants with desirable traits, they were also selecting genes important for transforming a wild grass into a food plant. Since that time, Mexican farmers have created thousands of varieties suitable for cultivation in the numerous environments in the Mexican landscape—from dry, temperate...

Des Moines, IA (AHN) - The marine dead zone resulting from the Midwest flooding is expected to expand to over 10,000 square miles, according to researchers from the Louisiana State University and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. The water in the dead zone, approximately the size of Massachusetts, does not have sufficient oxygen at depth to support marine life. Since 1990, the zone, located off the coasts of Louisiana and Texas, usually covers 6,000 square miles, varying according to the flow of the Mississippi River. Its low oxygen content is caused by the presence of large algae blooms which feeds...

While Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama insists drilling for more oil in off-limits federal lands won’t help gas prices come down, there’s at least one thing that would: lifting tariffs on imported ethanol. Problem is, the Illinois senator’s ties to the powerful U.S. ethanol lobby would prevent him from doing it. “I got to tell you – ethanol mafia is a powerful thing, Jim,” CNBC “Street Signs” host Erin Burnett said June 23, noting all the breaks the industry is getting from the U.S. government. “The ethanol emperors – or they are the mafia.” “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer...

When VeraSun Energy inaugurated a new ethanol processing plant last summer in Charles City, Iowa, some of that industry’s most prominent boosters showed up. Leaders of the National Corn Growers Association and the Renewable Fuels Association, for instance, came to help cut the ribbon — and so did Senator Barack Obama. Skip to next paragraph Related To Ease Gas Prices, Obama Eyes Speculators (June 23, 2008) Times Topics: Barack Obama Blog The Caucus The latest political news from around the nation. Join the discussion. Election Guide More Politics News Then running far behind Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in name recognition...

CNN rarely features much of interest but did run a piece recently on biofuels which included some attention to a nation which, unlike the United States, learned something from the oil crisis of the 1970s. That nation resolved not to continue its dependence on Arab whims and wars and chose to become energy self-sufficient. Instead of virtually shutting down domestic oil exploration and ceasing to build oil refineries and nuclear generating plants, and bemoaning the cost of fuel—as we did, and are doing—that nation began developing its own resources. Those resources included limited domestic oil fields and an unlimited supply...

As a farmer in North Central Illinois, I feel it is imperative that I respond to the most recent deluge of negative media attention, and letters to newspapers, attacking ethanol. We must look past the fear mongering rhetoric that is being distributed by the big oil companies and the multinational food processors. Just 18 months ago the price paid to farmers for corn in Bureau County , Ill. was only $1.88 per bushel (56 pounds of food for $1.88!). At that time it cost me well over $3.00 to raise corn. Today the price paid for corn in the county...

Here's the next chapter in BOR's war against big oil and the evil "speculators". In a discussion about oil with Karl Rove, BOR said we don't need corn. Karl compared the oil market to other commodities, basically saying the oil market works the same way other commodities work: "Look there are 30 commodities that trade in the same way you are talking about........ like corn, palm oil, you name it." BOR didn't like that and said, "but there is a difference between corn, and soy beans, and orange juice, and all these other things. You don't need them, you don't...

Corn hits record, soy rallies as floods expand By Julie Ingwersen and Nigel Hunt Thu Jun 12, 1:39 PM ET Corn prices soared to record highs on Thursday as flooding damaged crop prospects in the U.S. Midwest, heightening concern over shrinking stocks and fueling the market's relentless advance. Torrential rains have swept across the Midwest, the key growing region in the world's top producer, resulting in floods which have destroyed homes, as well as thousands of acres of corn and soybeans. "It's the worst in recent memory, at a time when demand has never been higher," said Gavin Maguire, analyst...

Dr. John White is the founder & president of White Technical Research, a consulting firm serving the food and beverage industry for nearly 15 years. He has worked with high fructose corn syrup for more than 25 years, and his expertise has been quoted by numerous news outlets. Organizations such as the American Council on Science and Health in Washington, D.C., the Institute of Food Technologists in Atlanta, and most recently the Corn Refiners Association have turned to him and his expertise on the sweetener for answers. Now, QSR talks with him to set the record straight about the similarities...

First electricity rates jumped, now gasoline prices are galloping up, and the next sticker shock could be chicken prices, which are likely to go up at least 10 percent by the summer. That’s what James Perdue, chairman of the East Coast’s largest poultry company, told members of the Maryland Economic Development Association on Tuesday morning. The culprit is the rising price of corn, which is the main source of chicken feed. More than a third of all corn is going to produce ethanol, a fuel added to or used instead of gasoline. “We’ve got to feed those chickens,” Perdue said....

Always read to the end of the report; that’s where the good stuff is. Case in point an obscure little stat was released on Friday with the not-quite-tantalizing title “Agricultural Prices”. Tables and tables of words with numbers after them – soybeans, price per bushel – wheat, percentage change year over year – imported fruits…exported nuts…you get the idea. If you do the shopping for your family as I do (don’t snicker, I also chop down trees and bench 300), you’re probably not surprised to find out that agricultural prices rose quite rapidly in May. In fact the monthly price...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Corn futures fell Wednesday after the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it would open up 24 million conservation acres for grazing, a new tool the government is using to ease costs for livestock raisers. Corn for July delivery fell as much as 2% to $5.85 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade before settling down 0.9% at $5.92 a bushel. Late Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it would allow livestock producers to use some lands normally protected by the Conservation Reserve Program to hay or forage after the primary nesting season for grass-nesting...

"In terms of renewable fuels, ethanol is the worst solution," Patzek says. "It has the highest energy cost with the least benefit."Ethanol is produced by fermenting renewable crops like corn or sugarcane. It may sound green, Patzek says, but that's because many scientists are not looking at the whole picture. According to his research, more fossil energy is used to produce ethanol than the energy contained within it. Patzek's ethanol critique began during a freshman seminar he taught in which he and his students calculated the energy balance of the biofuel. Taking into account the energy required to grow the...

Well, I’ll be doggoned. I never thought I’d see such outspoken opposition to ethanol from such unlikely sources – such as many of the politicians who helped create this monstrous and expensive fraud in the first place. Last Friday, a group of Republican senators, including presidential candidate John McCain, urged the Environmental Protection Agency to hold off enforcing legislation to increase ethanol production. There goes the Farm Belt vote! Even the August New York Times – which has never failed to support a government solution to every real or perceived problem on the planet – now says “it is time...

FOOD and Farming Minister Jeff Rooker has told farmers he is ‘pushing’ his Department to do more to encourage the uptake of anaerobic digestion on UK farms. Specifically, he is asking Defra to look at the possibility of providing assistance to farmers to meet the capital cost of connecting on-farm plants to the National Grid. The Minister is an enthusiast of the technology, which can convert slurry into electricity and fertiliser, and recently visited a Government-funded demonstration plant at Ludlow, Shropshire, that uses waste food and green material. But while the Government has made some moves to encourage uptake, Lord...

May 06, 2008, 4:00 a.m. Children of the CornLet's carefully examine the benefits — and beneficiaries — of ethanol. By David Freddoso For the first time since the United States government began subsidizing ethanol, its defenders are on the run. World hunger is chipping away at the image of one of America’s most-outrageous subsidies, even sympathetic politicians are being forced to admit that the biofuel industry has gone too far this time. “I’ve supported ethanol from the beginning,� Sen. Dick Durbin said (D., lll.) last week. Durbin represents the nation’s second-largest corn-producing state. “But we have to understand it’s...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry asked the government to cut "skyrocketing" food prices by waiving half of the renewable fuel standard for ethanol made from grain. The Republican governor from the oil-producing state said in a statement that such a waiver was "the best, quickest way" to ease rising food costs before lasting damage was done. "We're diversifying our state's energy portfolio at a rapid rate, but this misguided mandate is significantly affecting Texans' family food bill," he added. Perry said that over the last three years, the price of corn has shot up 138 percent around the world, while global...

The Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman once said, "One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results." When Congress passed legislation to greatly expand America's commitment to biofuels, it intended to create energy independence and protect the environment. But the results have been quite different. America remains equally dependent on foreign sources of energy, and new evidence suggests that ethanol is causing great harm to the environment. In recent weeks, the correlation between government biofuel mandates and rapidly rising food prices has become undeniable. At a time when the U.S. economy...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Texas Governor Rick Perry has asked the Environmental Protection Agency for an immediate waiver on the state's requirements under a federal ethanol mandate because of "skyrocketing food costs," according to a release on the state's Web site Friday. Perry asked the EPA to reduce the state's federal renewable fuel standard mandate by 50% for ethanol produced from grain. "We appreciate the good intentions behind the push for renewable fuels. In fact we're diversifying our state's energy portfolio at a rapid rate, but this misguided mandate is significantly affecting Texans' family food bill," said Perry in a...

With the world consuming more food than it produces and global grain stocks the lowest for 30 years, food prices are soaring from Indonesia to Indianapolis. Some experts called it the Perfect Storm and others a tsunami. The global food crisis has a common denominator with the still unfolding subprime mortgage debacle whose losses the International Monetary Fund (IMF) now estimates at $1.1 trillion: Greed. Predatory lending coupled with criminal profiteering was behind the still unfolding subprime mortgage debacle whose losses the International Monetary Fund now estimates at $1.1 trillion. It is the largest loss of wealth in modern U.S....

MUMBAI, April 23 (Reuters) - Indian corn futures ended higher on Wednesday on media reports that the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission was opposed to a ban on commodities futures trade, analysts said. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Tuesday opposed suggestions to ban futures trade in commodities, the Business Standard paper reported. "Some recovery was seen ...there could be some more rise..prices had fallen quite a bit in last few days," said an analyst with Motilal Oswal Commodities Broker Private Ltd. Strong export demand also supported the gains, they said. India is likely to export 2.1...

Researchers design a crop that can break down its own cellulose. In an effort to help boost the nation's supply of biofuels, researchers have created three strains of genetically modified corn to manufacture enzymes that break down the plant's cellulose into sugars that can be fermented into ethanol. Incorporating such enzymes directly into the plants could reduce the cost of converting cellulose into biofuel. Last year, new federal regulations called for production of renewable fuels to increase to 36 billion gallons annually--nearly five times current levels--by 2022. Today, nearly all fuel ethanol in the United States is produced from corn...

Many policy makers at the weekend meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank agreed that the problem is severe. Among other targets, they singled out U.S. policies pushing corn-based ethanol and other biofuels as deepening the woes."When millions of people are going hungry, it's a crime against humanity that food should be diverted to biofuels," said India's finance minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, in an interview. Turkey's finance minister, Mehmet Simsek, said the use of food for biofuels is "appalling."

Bush Orders $200 Million Drawdown From Emergency Reserve to Help Nations Deal With Hunger WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Monday ordered the release of $200 million in emergency aid to help nations where surging food prices have deepened hunger woes and sparked violent protests. The move comes one day after the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, called on the international community to act urgently in helping needy people and "put our money where our mouth is." Haiti, Egypt and the Philippines are among the countries facing civil unrest because of food prices and shortages.

Energy: The world's poor are learning what happens when government subsidizes the burning of food. It's time to end this madness and let the market decide if any biofuels make sense. For most Americans, the rising prices at the supermarket are definitely an annoyance, but hardly a threat to life and health. It's a different story in countries like Haiti, where food inflation has led to real hunger and, last week, to riots. News reports say the poorest Haitians are trying to get by on cookies made with dirt, vegetable oil and salt. Food riots also have roiled Egypt and...

In the last year, the price of wheat has tripled, corn doubled, and rice almost doubled. As prices soared, food riots have broken out in about 20 poor countries including Yemen, Haiti, Egypt, Pakistan, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, and Mexico. In response some countries, such as India, Pakistan Egypt and Vietnam, are banning the export of grains and imposing food price controls. Are rising food prices the result of the economic dynamism of China and India, in which newly prosperous consumers are demanding more food—especially more meat? Perennial doomsters such as the Earth Policy Institute's Lester Brown predicted more than a...

April 4, 2008, 11:08PM Dueling demands for corn Cattle feeders say the growing need for it in ethanol is driving up the price and threatening their livelihood By BRETT CLANTON Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle TULIA — Ask John Van Pelt his thoughts on ethanol, and he's likely to pull out his adding machine and let the numbers speak for themselves. Van Pelt, the manager of a cattle feedlot in this town 50 miles south of Amarillo, is now paying $215 a ton for cattle feed — double what he spent just three years ago. With 20,000 cattle in his yard,...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Corn prices jumped to a record $6 a bushel Thursday, driven up by an expected supply shortfall that will only add to Americans' growing grocery bill and further squeeze struggling ethanol producers. ADVERTISEMENT Corn prices have shot up nearly 30 percent this year amid dwindling stockpiles and surging demand for the grain used to feed livestock and make alternative fuels including ethanol. Prices are poised to go even higher after the U.S. government this week predicted that American farmers -- the world's biggest corn producers -- will plant sharply less of the crop in 2008 compared...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- From chicken nuggets to corn flakes, food prices at grocery stores and dinner tables could be headed even higher as farmers cut back on the land they're planting in corn this spring. Corn prices already are high, and a drop in supply should keep them rising. Combine that with the huge demand for corn-based ethanol fuel -- and higher energy costs for transporting food -- and consumers are likely to see their food bills going up and up. Farmers are now expected to plant 86 million acres of corn this year, the Department of Agriculture predicted Monday,...

WASHINGTON — Farmers are expected to plant less corn this year, according to the Department of Agriculture, and that could mean higher bills at the grocery store. Corn prices have skyrocketed in recent years, helped by the burgeoning ethanol industry, which turns the crop into fuel, and rising worldwide demand for food. The higher prices have hurt poultry, beef and pork companies, who use corn to feed their animals. Farmers are expected to plant 86 million acres of corn this year, the government predicted today, down 8 percent from 2007, when the amount of corn planted was the highest since...

Grain prices soar globally Rice shortages are appearing across Asia. In Egypt, the Army is now baking bread to curb food riots. By Daniel Ten Kate | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor from the March 27, 2008 edition Bangkok, Thailand - - Rice farmers here are staying awake in shifts at night to guard their fields from thieves. In Peru, shortages of wheat flour are prompting the military to make bread with potato flour, a native crop. In Egypt, Cameroon, and Burkina Faso food riots have broken out in the past week. Around the world, governments and aid groups...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Ask about hops at the American Flatbread brewpub in Burlington, Vt., and you're likely to find yourself in cold storage, in the cellar, with brewer and co-owner Paul Sayler. Cloistered toward the back, a dozen or so half-full foil bags of hop pellets, hoarded last year, sit on a shelf. Sayler opens a bag, cradles the hops in his hands and takes a whiff of the signature fragrance that microbrew aficionados crave. "This is my little meager trove of hops," mourns Sayler, glancing at what's left on the rack: some German Spalt and Tetnang varieties, a...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=amPZmB.ZSuiE&refer=latin_america

Contact: Grady Semmens gsemmens@ucalgary.ca 403-220-7722 University of Calgary Corn's roots dig deeper into South AmericaEarliest signs of maize as staple food found after spreading south from Mexican homeland Corn has long been known as the primary food crop in prehistoric North and Central America. Now it appears it may have been an important part of the South American diet for much longer than previously thought, according to new research by University of Calgary archaeologists who are cobbling together the ancient history of plant domestication in the New World. In a paper published in the March 24 advanced online edition of...

Ethanol industry losing its momentum By Michael Hooper | MORRIS NEWS SERVICE Tuesday, March 11, 2008 Story last updated at 3/11/2008 - 2:42 am TOPEKA, Kan. - Tough times have struck the ethanol industry as profit margins have declined while corn prices have soared. Last month, Cargill suspended development of an ethanol plant near Topeka. An ethanol plant that opened last fall in Pratt, Kan., already has stopped producing ethanol. A new biofuels plant in Mead, Neb., shut down last fall. Another ethanol plant in Canton, Ill., is in bankruptcy. The industry was skyrocketing five years ago when the price...

One of the many mandates of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 calls for oil companies to increase the amount of ethanol mixed with gasoline. President Bush said, during his 2006 State of the Union address, "America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world." Let's look at some of the "wonders" of ethanol as a replacement for gasoline. Ethanol contains water that distillation cannot remove. As such, it can cause major damage to automobile engines not specifically designed to burn ethanol. The water content of ethanol also risks pipeline corrosion and thus must...

The pending global food crisis is due, in part, to a rich twist of irony: One of the factors driving up the price of T-bone steak, a dozen eggs and a carton of milk is a perfectly edible vegetable, a staple of many diets --corn. Adding to the irony, we're growing more corn than ever before. We're just not eating it. Corn is being diverted from human consumption, kicking off a domino effect of problems tied to food prices. It starts with ethanol produced from corn, which optimists hope will help solve the U.S. reliance on foreign oil, as well...

What is the price for America’s new emphasis on energy independence? For beer drinkers, about a buck a six-pack. Across the country, farm fields once used for growing hops and barley for beer are sprouting corn, which has become lucrative because of President Bush’s support of ethanol, a corn-based alternative fuel. And then, basic economics comes into play: With demand for hops and barley outstripping supply, the cost for those commodities goes up. That means lovers of craft beers and microbrews may be seeing red or feeling nauseated — and that’s not the effect of one too many oatmeal stouts....

This is one of my recent columns, addressing ill-advised corn subsidies... From the 10 December 2007 Lockport Union Sun and Journal (Lockport, NY) CORN SUBSIDIES SHOULD GO DOWN By Bob Confer Federal subsidization of agriculture has become a necessary evil, more or less out of its own existence. Such is the outcome when government so greatly interferes in capitalistic endeavors: once the dominoes are set into motion by its "invisible hand" the damage is done and the pieces can never be put back to normal. We cannot go back to a true free market economy in regard to our foodstuff...

Just one month ago, a study conducted by a team of American researchers concluded that there was nothing more environmental-friendly than the biofuel crops, that could reduce the greenhouse gas emissions by 94% and produce five times more energy. New studies however warn that by transforming the various ecosystems into biofuel crop fields would only accentuate the global warming phenomenon rather than reducing it. According to the latest estimations, converting natural ecosystems into biofuel crop fields is likely to release up to 420 times more carbon. “The land we’re likely to plow up is the land that we’ve had taking...