Posted on 08/09/2005 10:24:44 AM PDT by Hi Heels
U.S. Appears Headed for a Peanut Surplus By ELLIOTT MINOR, Associated Press Writer Tue Aug 9, 5:35 AM ET
ALBANY, Ga. - Peanuts in storage plus peanuts in the field.
Right now, the United States has too many peanuts and that, experts say, could be bad news for the peanut commodity program unless something is done to whittle down the piles.
"We're afraid if we cost the government a lot of money, we'll get less in the next farm bill," said Tyron Spearman, executive director of the National Peanut Buying Points Association.
Some 215,000 tons of peanuts are still unsold from the 2004 crop and agricultural officials predict growers will produce another 2.3 million tons this year, Spearman said.
Despite recent growth in peanut consumption, Americans use only about 1.6 million tons a year and another 300,000 to 400,000 tons are exported.
That leaves a surplus of about 485,000 tons.
Farmers won't lose because their government crop program guarantees them $355 per ton. The losers could be federal taxpayers who pay the difference between the guaranteed price and the actual market value of the peanuts.
Low peanut prices increase government costs, while higher prices reduce government costs.
Last year's 2.1 million ton crop peanut crop has already cost the government $320 million, said Spearman, who spoke Friday at the Georgia Peanut Producers Association's annual buying point meeting. The 416 buying points stretching from New Mexico to Virginia buy peanuts from the farmer and grade them before shipping them to shelling plants or storage warehouses.
Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, addressed legislative issues and the outlook for the new farm bill, which will be approved by Congress in 2007.
Costly commodity programs tend to be singled out in Congress, but Chambliss said the 2002 Farm Bill, which created the new peanut program, is successful and the peanut program has been a bargain most years.
"There's always somebody who wants to take a shot at the peanut program," said Chambliss, who challenged the industry to find new uses of peanuts.
Peanut acreage has increased after the elimination of the old Depression-era peanut program in 2002. That opened the door for peanut farming in new areas.
This year, more farmers opted to grow peanuts because it seemed to have the best economic potential when compared with cotton, corn and soybeans, Spearman said. As a result, peanut acreage increased 25 percent in Georgia and 15 percent nationwide.
Growers have been grumbling for several years that the U.S. Department of Agriculture's "posted price," the price U.S. peanuts can be sold on the world market, is too high and is pricing American peanuts out of the market. The current posted price is $337 per ton.
Stanley Fletcher, a University of Georgia agricultural economist who specializes in peanuts, said USDA officials could increase demand for American peanuts by lowering the posted price, but it would increase government costs.
"If we don't move the prices, we're going to have a lot sitting there," he said in a phone interview Thursday. "Prices have to move down to move them into the marketplace."
Spearman said U.S. shelled peanuts are currently selling for $850 per metric ton in Europe, compared with $695 per ton for peanuts from Argentina and $725 per ton for peanuts from China.
"Everybody is looking for an answer, but no one knows what the USDA is going to do," Spearman said.
Chambliss, noting that he'd been given a golf shirt made from corn the day before in Minnesota, urged the industry to "get creative" and increase peanut demand.
Then, reflecting on potential uses of peanuts, he said, "I don't know if we can make golf shirts out of it."
I'm LMAO right along side of you........how bizarre.
You've said it all in a nutshell about the increases in allergies and asthma attacks - particularly amongst children.
the only reason my 7yo isn't outside playing right now is it is pouring rain.....so she's been curled up with a book reading to the dogs :)
Gee, I feel better already. LOL
Reading a book to the dogs on a rainy day. *sigh* To be young again.
A bountiful agricultural surplus benefits everybody, Gabz.
Your "idea" to produce food shortages "more efficiently" is not only pure idiocy, it is also evil.
If we could only use peanut oil to power our vehicles...
LOL!!!!
When the power went out shortly after I made that post, she got an even bigger treat, mommy joined them for the reading time :)
Of course it has since stopped raining - so that means more laundry, 'cause what she was wearing is rather wet and muddy :)
A bountiful agricultural surplus benefits everybody, Gabz.
I never said any such thing.......I agreed with you that it is wasteful and inefficient. Your support shows your support of wasteful, inefficient government via taxpayer subsidies.
Your "idea" to produce food shortages "more efficiently" is not only pure idiocy, it is also evil.
You obviously have me mixed up with someone else.........food rotting in warehouses because of falsely inflated prices is the idiocy.
There will be no food shortages with a gradual elimination of the subsidies. In fact I see the opposite, because prices will decline and there won't be all the waste because more people will be able to afford the stuff that is currently rotting in warehouses.
Initially, prices will decline below the cost of production, forcing more farmers out of business.
Then, with fewer farmers in production, shortages will cause prices to skyrocket when we experience a season of adverse growing conditions.
It's better to have surplus food than shortages, Gabz, even if some of it winds up rotting in warehouses.
Or are you just one of those people who enjoy inflicting hunger and starvation on others?
It's Carter's fault. My husband and I bought t-shirts back in the 70's that said, "Goobers today, Gonners tomorrow". That was during those "nutty" Carter years. Wish I still had those shirts. They might be worth something now. It sure turned heads back then. I wondered then if ole Billy (Carter) had them made up to make a quick dime for his drinkin' habit. ;)
I'll bump that thought....."*sigh* To be young again. Then again....reading a book to the dogs on a rainy day sounds like just the thing we could only DREAM about doing when we were younger. So turn the page, enjoy the moment, and "woof woof" to your doggies. :)
Is there currently any other US commodity which has the protection of a cartel--for which the only farmers who may grow the product must belong to the cartel?
...mumbles stuff about carter...bad stuff.
Give me some! I love peanuts.
BWAHHHH HAAA HAAH AHHAA!!!!
PROFESSOR SHABAZZ K. MORTON: I don't see what's so funny. Hello, my name is Professor Shabazz K. Morton. In 1895, at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, a black man named George Washington Carver developed a new method of soul, soil improvement through crop rotation. (the audience laughs) So I messed up. Shut up! (the audience laughs again and applauds) Stop clapping before y'all make me smile! To end the South's agricultural dependence on cotton alone. As a result, Carver came up with hundreds of industrial uses for the peanut. Sure industrial uses. Meanwhile, one night, he's having a few friends over to his house for dinner, and one of them leans over and says to Doctor Carver, "Excuse me, George. What's that you puttin' on your bread?" And Carver says, "Oh, that's nothing but a butter substitute that I made from peanuts. I can't digest all that animal fat, you know." So, the other fella tastes it and he says, "Hmm. This pastes pretty, this tastes..." (the audience laughs again) Yeah, keep on smiling. "This tastes pretty good, man. Mind if we take a peek at the recipe?" And Doctor Carver says, "Take a peek? Heh. Man, you can have it. Who's gonna make, eat butter made out of peanuts? No, no, I'm working on the method to compress peanuts into phonograph needles." So, Doctor Carver's two dinner guests, Edward "Skippy" Williamson and Frederick "Jif" Armstrong, two white men, stole George Washington Carver's recipe for peanut butter, copyrighted it, and reaped untold fortunes from it, while Doctor Carver died penniless and insane, still trying to play a phonograph record with a peanut. This has been Black History Minute. I'm Shabazz K. Morton. Good night.
Staple food crops.
No they will not. We all have to eat it's real simple get it.
Do you understand the term "surplus"???
surplus = MORE than what we can eat.
During seasons with favorable growing conditions, farmers produce a surplus which drives the market price of their crops BELOW the cost of production. This forces many farmers OUT of business.
if there is a shortage guess what they will make more money:
Yes, prices skyrocket during shortages.
And people who cannot afford those prices go hungry.
Others may not go hungry, but they'll scream bloody murder about food prices and toss all the jack@$$ politicians out of office.
This is a prime example of why ALL government farm subsidies should end. If you cannot make it as a farmer without government subsidies, then that is God's way of telling you that you should do something else for a living. It is also the market's way of saying that we have too many farmers.
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