Catfish supply in North Texas drying up
Restaurants are having trouble staying stocked as rising grain costs drive farmers to close ponds
A combination of cheap imports, high prices for corn-based catfish feed, high fuel costs and, until recently, low market prices for fish has made fish farming a money-losing proposition for many producers, Avery said. Then the recession has kept people from dining out, and much farm-raised catfish is consumed in restaurants, he said.
“Grain prices have gone up so high that it makes growing crops more profitable. We’ve gone through these cycles before, but this is more extreme,” Scott said.
Aside from foreign competition, the near-doubling of grain prices made fish farming unprofitable for many producers, since feed represents 60 percent of costs
http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/03/20/2936211/catfish-supply-drying-up.html
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Ethanol subsidies help drain catfish ponds
“Catfish farmers across the South, unable to cope with the soaring cost of corn and soybean feed, are draining their ponds.... Corn and soybeans have nearly tripled in price in the last two years, for many reasons: harvest shortfalls, increasing demand by the Asian middle class, government mandates for corn to produce ethanol and, most recently, the flooding in the Midwest.”
Meanwhile, Congress does nothing about the aspect of this that they could address — agriculture subsidies in general, and ethanol subsidies in particular.
“Meanwhile, Congress does nothing about the aspect of this that they could address — agriculture subsidies in general, and ethanol subsidies in particular.”
I don’t know what you’re complaining about. I think burning our food is a splendid idea.