[curlewbird]

Your right! Especially when most consumers don't have a CLUE how much it actually costs to produce the crop in the first place!!!!!!! By the way, most average consumers aren't the ones with the extra cash to play the commodities market. Consumers shouldn't have a say in the price of crops, they should have a say in the price of the food they purchase from the BIG corporations who really rack up the $$. Do you really think that when the price at the grocery store goes up, it's the farmer who is getting that cash?????? Lamb is not traded on the mercantile and the price stays affordable at the market, as well as being profitable for the producers. It can be done!!

[Toddsterpatriot]

Consumers shouldn't have a say in the price of crops, they should have a say in the price of the food they purchase from the BIG corporations who really rack up the $$.

Yes!! Why should the big corporations have a say in the price of the goods they buy? I think the government should tell them what to pay.

And those brokers on the Board of Trade floor are just a bunch of leeches. The government should take all their money and give it to the farmers.

[junta]

Basically you would end up with vertical integration on a scale much closer to the defunct USSR than would be comfortable for me. I can buy corn right now if I want to, but take away CBOT and then ADM or Cargill will tell you what they want to pay. I would wager if that you took the lean hog contract from the board then the pork industry would be top to bottom with a few industrial corps squeezing what little life is left of the independent producer.

[Mase]

Consumers shouldn't have a say in the price of crops, they should have a say in the price of the food they purchase from the BIG corporations who really rack up the $$.
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Maybe you should buy some stock in those BIG corporations who are racking up all those $$. If you did your homework, however, you would most likely invest your money elsewhere as the food business provides only modest profitability. That's why there is so much consolidation going on within the industry.