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Somehow, the AP found a way to spin an excellent yield in crops this summer, despite flooding earlier in the midwest, into a doom and gloom article. US grain exports snagged by infrastructure delays

As Price of Grain Rises, Catfish Farms Dry Up By DAVID STREITFELD LELAND, Miss. — Catfish farmers across the South, unable to cope with the soaring cost of corn and soybean feed, are draining their ponds. “It’s a dead business,” said John Dillard, who pioneered the commercial farming of catfish in the late 1960s. Last year Dillard & Company raised 11 million fish. Next year it will raise none. People can eat imported fish, Mr. Dillard said, just as they use imported oil. As for his 55 employees? “Those jobs are gone.” Corn and soybeans have nearly tripled in price...

UPDATE 2-EU raids Cargill, Bunge in food-price probe Thu Jul 10, 2008 10:58pm BST (Adds comments from Cargill, Bunge) BRUSSELS, July 10 (Reuters) - The European Commission raided agribusiness giants Cargill Inc [CARG.UL] and Bunge Ltd (BG.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Thursday in a sweep of traders and distributors of cereals and other agricultural products for human consumption and animal feed in two EU countries. The raids come at a time when grain prices have soared to record highs amid strong demand, production problems and the use of grain to produce biofuels that have lifted food prices. "The Commission has...

WASHINGTON - Larry Matlack, President of the American Agriculture Movement (AAM), has raised concerns over the issue of U.S. grain reserves after it was announced that the sale of 18.37 million bushels of wheat from USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust. “According to the May 1, 2008 CCC inventory report there are o­nly 24.1 million bushels of wheat in inventory, so after this sale there will be o­nly 2.7 million bushels of wheat left the entire CCC inventory,” warned Matlack. “Our concern is not that we are using the remainder of our strategic grain reserves for humanitarian...

Unprecedented food scarcity is beginning to dictate the rules of a new political order where individual countries are scrambling to secure their own food supplies with little concern for the rest of the world, says the founder of the Earth Policy Institute. Recent manifestations of national food insecurity like export restrictions imposed by some grain-producing countries are the troublesome portents of an "entirely new chapter in the book of food security," Lester Brown told foreign correspondents in Beijing on Tuesday. "We are in the midst of the most severe food crisis in the world's history," Brown said. "This is not...

Two years after questions arose regarding the viability of the U.S. rice industry, the sector has emerged stronger and has a very promising outlook with total U.S. rice exports forecast to increase around 20 percent, according to a new Rabobank report, “U.S. Rice.” “The outlook for U.S. rice growers remains strong, with more cause for optimism than concern. However, with global rice stocks already at low levels, prices are especially susceptible to any shocks,” said Michael Whitehead, food and agribusiness research and advisory vice president. “Adverse weather in a particular rice-growing region could be one cause of price increases, while...

China's Grain Market Balance Difficult to Maintain in Long Term By Interfax-China 16 Apr 2008 at 11:01 AM GMT-04:00 SHANGHAI (Interfax-China) -- It will be difficult for China to maintain a balance between domestic grain supplies and demand in the long term, the head of China's State Administration of Grain (SAG) said. In 2007, China's grain output stood at 501.5 million tonnes, but there was only a modest surplus in wheat production. Rice and corn saw essentially balanced supply and demand, while the supply gap for soybeans expanded. Although China's grain supply and demand will be basically balanced this year,...

Cargill profits soar as grain prices surge Apr 15, 2008 04:30 AM Cargill Inc., the largest U.S. agricultural company, said fiscal third-quarter profit rose 86 per cent because of surging global demand for fertilizers, grains and food ingredients. Net income climbed to $1.03 billion (U.S.) in the three months ended Feb. 29, from $553 million in the same period a year earlier, Cargill said yesterday in a statement. Cargill, which processes and distributes grains, oilseeds and other agricultural commodities, is benefiting from increasing demand from emerging economies that has pushed prices to records. Wheat futures have soared 93 per cent...

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...

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

Argentine Farm Policies Could Dent Grains Output BUENOS AIRES - Government policies aimed at fighting inflation and cashing in on high global grains prices could lead Argentine farmers to grow less wheat and soy, a leading grains producer said Wednesday. Argentina is one of the world's top suppliers of soy, wheat, corn and beef, but surging export demand has pushed up the price of everyday staples and the government has responded with export bans, price controls and export tax increases. Last week, the government raised duties on soy and sunseed sales abroad -- a measure that has infuriated exporters and...

A Global Need for Grain That Farms Can’t Fill By DAVID STREITFELD LAWTON, N.D. — Whatever Dennis Miller decides to plant this year on his 2,760-acre farm, the world needs. Wheat prices have doubled in the last six months. Corn is on a tear. Barley, sunflower seeds, canola and soybeans are all up sharply. “For once, there’s great reason to be optimistic,” Mr. Miller said. But the prices that have renewed Mr. Miller’s faith in farming are causing pain far and wide. A tailor in Lagos, Nigeria, named Abel Ojuku said recently that he had been forced to cut back...

Record grain prices boost rural economy By ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 7, 6:31 AM ET Record-high grain prices are fueling a rural economic boom in farm states such as Kansas. Farm equipment dealers have a backlog of several months in orders for new machinery. Cropland rents are rising, along with agricultural land prices. And with spring planting just weeks away, farmers are watching the volatile commodities markets as they decide which crops to grow in the coming season. While their city neighbors are struggling with foreclosures and fears of a recession, a lot more money is circulating...

Pakistan army guards scarce grain Women buy flour in Karachi - many have gone without The authorities in Pakistan have deployed paramilitary troops to guard wheat supplies around the country amid fears of a massive shortfall. The government has blamed hoarders and smugglers for the problem. Wheat is a staple food in Pakistan and shortages have led to large scale rioting in the past. Flour shortfalls initially pushed up market prices. Later flour ran out on the open market when officials fixed prices and warned against violations. Now Pakistan's national disaster management authority has deployed thousands of paramilitary troops at...

/begin my translation Aids to N. Korea Remain Blocked at Dandong Station [2008-01-13 ] Starting this year, Chinese government is restricting the export of grains, which are main items of N. Korea aid(rice, corn, flour, beans and barley), hampering efforts by international and domestic aid agencies to provide food aid to N. Korea for this year. Since Jan. 5, all freight trains carrying food shipments from Shenyang and Qingdao and scheduled to cross Yalu River have been blocked (from going over to N. Korea) at Dandong Station(just across N. Korea.) It is due to new policy of Chinese government...

Birthwort Plant's Dark Side: Contaminated Grain Linked To Kidney Disease And Cancer In Balkan CountriesSeeds from birthwort plant is contaminating the wheat grain in the Balkan region, leading to a devastating kidney disease affecting rural residents in that region. (Credit: Image courtesy of Stony Brook University Medical Center) ScienceDaily (Dec. 9, 2007) — Seeds from birthwort (Aristolochia clematis), a plant which grows in wheat fields in the Balkan region and which has been used throughout Europe and Asia as an herbal remedy for 2000 years, is contaminating the wheat grain, leading to a devastating kidney disease affecting rural residents in...

DES MOINES, Iowa — A grain bin collapsed and sent a tidal wave of corn into a home, sweeping it off its foundation, trapping a family of four and shaking the ground for miles. One man was taken to a hospital after being buried for hours in grain and debris in Hillsboro in southeast Iowa.

About 50 million people are affected in Bangladesh About 140 million people, mainly in developing countries, are being poisoned by arsenic in their drinking water, researchers believe. Speaking at the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) annual meeting in London, scientists said this will lead to higher rates of cancer in the future. South and East Asia account for more than half of the known cases globally. Eating large amounts of rice grown in affected areas could also be a health risk, scientists said. "It's a global problem, present in 70 countries, probably more," said Peter Ravenscroft, a research associate in...

CN_Today 12/16/2006 3:14:00 PM USDA: Moldy Grain, Not Bird Flu, Caused Idaho Duck Deaths WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)--Moldy grain, not bird flu, caused a large mallard duck die-off in Idaho, a U.S. Department of Agriculture spokeswoman said Friday. Tests conducted at the National Wildlife Health Center, which is operated by the U.S. Geological Survey, found no avian influenza, said USDA spokeswoman Angela Harless. Instead, it’s been determined that the birds were sickened by eating mold on corn, she said. Mold produces a toxin that can sicken wildlife when ingested. As many as 2,500 mallard ducks died along a southeastern Idaho creek...

Jun. 18, 2006 0:24 | Updated Jun. 18, 2006 10:4511,000-year-old grain shakes up beliefs on beginnings of agriculture By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH Bar-Ilan University researchers have found a cache of 120,000 wild oat and 260,000 wild barley grains at the Gilgal archaeological site near Jericho that date back 11,000 years - providing evidence of cultivation during the Neolithic Period. The research, performed by Drs. Ehud Weiss and Anat Hartmann of BIU's department of Land of Israel studies and Prof. Mordechai Kislev of the faculty of life sciences, appears in the June 16 edition of the prestigious journal Science. It is the...

Ancient Finding Suggests Pasta Invented In ChinaBEIJING -- Who invented noodles first? A discovery in western China could bolster the argument that the Chinese came up with pasta before the the Italians. Researchers have found a 4,000-year-old clump of yellow noodles inside an overturned bowl in China. The noodles had been made from a dough of two local varieties of millet. The bowl had become sealed with clay, so the noodles were preserved. The findings are published in this week's issue of the journal Nature. A Chinese researcher said they're definitely the earliest noodles ever found. The researcher said the...

Ukrainian operators of grain market are worried that the government fixed the minimum purchase price for the new harvest grain, reported the general director of Ukrainian grain association, Vladimir Klimenko. According to him, the offered price for grain will be a drag on export, which is expected to be about 11 million tons. If grain traders purchase goods at fixed prices, the export of 3, 4, 5, 6 class wheat, rye and corn will become impossible. Besides, exporters lose 30 gryvnias on each ton due to change of US dollar rate, and as much due to increase of prices for...

UN probes Wheat Pool Payments of $23.15M made in oil-for-food scandal congressional hearing told Steven Edwards CanWest News Service Saturday, April 30, 2005 UNITED NATIONS -- The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool has emerged as one of the companies involved in Iraq oil-for-food deals now under investigation by a U.S. congressional committee probing the United Nations aid program, which Saddam Hussein manipulated to skim off billions of dollars for himself. The focus on the company comes as the UN announced Friday it had discovered a staff-rule violation by Canadian businessperson and international diplomat Maurice Strong, whose long record at the world body...

BROWNSVILLE — A 29-year-old man has died after he was buried by more than 20 feet of grain in a silo at the Port of Brownsville. The accident happened as workers worked atop a large pile of grain, loading it onto a conveyor belt that leads to the top of a silo. Two other men were injured in the incident. "He sank into it like quicksand," Port of Brownsville Police Chief George Gavito said of the dead man, whom he would not identify pending notification of relatives. "The other man fell in, but did not go as deep." It took...

In this marketing year (July 2004 to June 2005) Russia will export about 8 million tonnes of grain, Russia's Agriculture Minister Aleksey Gordeyev told reporters on December 15, Interfax news agency informed. Despite the fact that total grain crop in this year will somewhat exceed the earlier forecasted by the ministry 76 million tonnes, the grain export forecast has been so far unchanged, the minister said. Russia's gross crop of grain might reach 77 to 77.5 million tonnes in this season, he said. The more exact data must be published by Russia's statistics service in the nearest time. In the...

In this marketing year (July 2004 to June 2005) Russia will export about 8 million tonnes of grain, Russia's Agriculture Minister Aleksey Gordeyev told reporters on December 15, Interfax news agency informed. Despite the fact that total grain crop in this year will somewhat exceed the earlier forecasted by the ministry 76 million tonnes, the grain export forecast has been so far unchanged, the minister said. Russia's gross crop of grain might reach 77 to 77.5 million tonnes in this season, he said. The more exact data must be published by Russia's statistics service in the nearest time. In the...

COOKSVILLE, ILL. – On the 800 acres John Sutter farms just east of Bloomington, rich black soil now appears below the remnants of corn stalks, the product of fresh tilling. The barn by his parents' sagging Victorian farmhouse is shut, the combine put away for the season. Mr. Sutter finished his harvest early this year, bringing in all the corn and soybeans in less than a month. And he's thrilled - or as thrilled as a farmer, raised to believe that truly good news doesn't exist, can be. "It's always nice to have a good crop," he says, ticking off...

An unidentified wheat virus has appeared in fields throughout western Kansas. The unknown pathogen causes the leaves to turn yellow and die.These symptoms are also associated with head death,wheat streak mosaic,and freezing; however,University of Kansas researchers have ruled out these possible causes. Researchers note evidence of the virus is in almost every field-although it has not yet destroyed the crop. University of Kansas virologists,with the help of researchers in Winnipeg,are trying to identify the proteins involved in the destruction of affected plants,so the genetic sequences may be compared to pathogens found in other parts of the world. One hypothesis-that nobody...

On February 8, the Chinese government announced an emergency appropriation, increasing its agricultural budget by 25 percent, or roughly $3 billion. The additional funds primarily will be used to raise support prices for wheat and rice, the principal food staples, and to improve irrigation infrastructure. For the State Council to approve such an increase outside of the normal budget-making process indicates the government's mounting concern about food security. After a remarkable expansion of grain output from 90 million tons in 1950 to 392 million tons in 1998, China's grain harvest has fallen in four of the last five years --...

Russia's grain. (AP) E-Mail this article Comments to Editor Discussion Forum Printer-Friendly Advertisement MOSCOW - Russia must take extra measures to spur the agricultural sector growth rate, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov announced today, opening a meeting of the Cabinet today. Grain production can become an important part of Russian economy, Kasyanov noted. Agriculture Minister Alexey Gordeev also stated today that Russia is able to increase grain production up to 100-110 million ton. “We must see how to increase areas under crop, so that Russia associated not only with oil and gas, but with grain”, Kasyanov said, reminding about Russian...

While Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and President Bush discussed Taiwan, currency rates and North Korea on December 9, a more important and far-reaching development in U.S.-China relations was going on far from the White House. Under the North China Plain, which produces half of China's wheat and a third of its corn, water tables are falling by 3 to 10 feet per year. Along with rising temperatures and the loss of cropland to non-farm uses, this trend is shrinking the Chinese grain harvest, which has fallen in four of the past five years. To get an idea of the magnitude,...

QUESTION: Why does Gen. 42:25 refer to corn, when corn is a new world crop? Europeans did not know of its existence until the 16th Century. Surely that must be a mistranslation by the KJV translators, because the Jews would have not known about corn.

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 January 12 A Spherule from Outer Space Credit: Timothy Culler (UCB) et al., Apollo 11 Crew, NASA Explanation: When a meteorite strikes the Moon, the energy of the impact melts some of the splattering rock, a fraction of which might cool into tiny glass beads. Many of these glass beads were present in lunar soil samples returned to Earth by the Apollo missions. Pictured above is one...

GRAIN sent from the European Union to feed the hungry in Russia was diverted into vodka production in a multi-million-pound fraud, a Brussels audit has revealed. The study of a £264m programme to distribute some of the EU’s food mountains among Russia’s needy also found that 600 truckloads of refrigerated beef had “disappeared” after leaving cold stores in St Petersburg. The conclusions have raised fears that millions of pounds may have ended up in the pockets of mafia bosses. A dossier drawn up by accountancy firm HLB International coincides with the annual report of the EU Court of Auditors, which...

The government of Zambia — with three million people facing death by starvation — on October 29 gave its final refusal to distribute U.S. grain already stored there to help feed its starving population. Zambia's Agriculture Minister Mundia Sikatana invoked the "precautionary principle" as his rationale — that is, since the grain was produced through the use of modern biotechnology, it has not been proven to be perfectly safe and may present some future risks to people or the environment. The Zambian government also said it fears European Union countries would refuse imports from Zambia since their crops might...

A customer who is ready to buy Russian grain has been finally found. Because of two years of crop failures, Canada decided to buy grain from Russia, Russia’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture Anatoly Mikhalev said at a public hearing in the Russian Chamber of Industry and Commerce today. Europe prefers to buy wheat from Ukraine.