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."
> U.S. Appears Headed for a Peanut Surplus
Indeed. We have one former presidential "goober" from Georgia who qualifies as surplus... available to any socialist dictatorship seeking syncophantic worldview.
For some reason that quote from Dr. Strangelove comes to mind upon reading the title. I can't remember it.
LOL! You don't even have the intellect to utilize punctuation in your replies.
...Which brings a question to mind...
Does anyone else here, besides me that is, eat peanuts without shelling them?
And no...I do not mean showering their position with mortar fire in order to make peanut butter. I mean eating them in the shell. That's the way I like 'em. By the bag full.
There is. Around my waist. It ain't "all that" if you know what I mean.
When the government reduces the support price.
Not before.
Oh American, if they only come boiled, you can have my 200lbs too. LOL
Now honey roasted, let's talk.
Is Jimmy Carruh mouthing off again?
How you come up with that lamebrain idea is beyond me - but then your twisted logic is beyond me as well.
But is has become abundantly clear that you wish to see the small family farm go the way of the buggy whip in favor of corporate conglomerate farming. They are the ones who benefit from subsidies, not small farms and definitely not the consumers.
So in addition to wasteful, inefficient sue of taxpayer dollars, and larger government, we can add corporate welfare to the list of your support regarding said government. SHEESH................
When the government reduces the support price.
Not before.
***
I know....I was kidding around. I don't really expect prices to ever come down. It's sort of like the notion of a "temporary" tax. There is no such thing. Once you have a tax, it almost never goes away. Once a price goes up, it rarely comes down, and if it does, it's only temporary. Usually, when it goes up again, it goes beyond the original price...to offset the losses from the temporary price reduction.
If you can't understand that a food surplus is better than a food shortage, then any type of logic is beyond you.
But is has become abundantly clear that you wish to see the small family farm go the way of the buggy whip in favor of corporate conglomerate farming. They are the ones who benefit from subsidies, not small farms and definitely not the consumers.
So in addition to wasteful, inefficient sue of taxpayer dollars, and larger government, we can add corporate welfare to the list of your support regarding said government.
Ooooooooooooo.... "corporate welfare"..... !!!
Where'd ya get those talking points, Gabz???
Ralph Nader??? Jesse Jackson??? Molly Ivins??? Maxine Waters??? Hillary Klinton???
Or did that pathetic rambling actually germinate in your own little pea-brain???
Corporate farming has gone global, ninny.
It's become more profitable to sell U.S. landholdings to developers and import food from property acquired in Latin America for a fraction of domestic land prices.
You're a fraud, Gabz.
Spare us your disingenuous concern for family farmers.
They're actually the target of your backstabbing idiocy.
True, patriotic conservatives should be embarrassed by your sniveling drivel.
By resorting to personal insults you show you have lost the argument..........but I will make a comment.
NOWHERE did I say any time that a surplus is not better than a shortage - that is your twisting of what I said, not my words.
And I'll let my family farmer friends know that I am backstabbing them, they will be happy to know that I have been a fraud to them all these years. In fact I think I will print this thread and bring it with me to our meeting this eveing.....we are always looking for a good laugh, and your posts will more than provide it.......thanks.
good day.
Most would rather be free to make their own planting decisions and rely on their productivity to compete in a free global market.
The government's support prices are designed to protect the most inefficient among them. And whenever there is a vote, the farmer who plants 2000 A of corn has only one vote, no more than the farmer who plants 20 A.
It's a shame..schemes like these are supposed to benefit the farmer, but anyone I ever heard about (and a couple I've talked to personally) all tell me they see little if anything from these "supports." In Pennsylvania, there is a milk marketing board which sets an artificially high minimum price for milk; yet the dairy farmers receive little of that money. Where does it go? I think I know -- politicians' pockets.
Little by little the family farm is disappearing...when it's gone completely, we will be stuck with corporations which will charge ridiculously high prices for their products. And everything will be genetically altered or grown with pesticides and chemicals -- you'll find few, if any, organic farmers. Not only that, but a tradition -- a way of life -- will be lost forever.
This is a conservative forum, Gabz.
You may think that maintaining a politically incorrect "puff list" defines you as "conservative",
but when you blow all that smoke out your @$$,
all that does is highlight the target for my Made In USA pitchfork.
There are only 2 factions that spout that marxist manure about "corporate welfare", Gabz:
As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter which faction applies to you.
You have earned every jab of my conservative pitchfork that I can muster.
And I'll let my family farmer friends know that I am backstabbing them, they will be happy to know that I have been a fraud to them all these years.
If they're truly family, I'm sure that they're already aware that you're a fraud. They're simply keeping peace in the family by not arguing with you.
"You can pick your friends but not your relatives."
HOW IS OUR JELLY SUPPLY? Full jar of peanut butter and a near empty jar of blackberry jam is a major disaster in our home.
I haven't read all the replies yet, but I, for one, don't think it should involve the government at all.
It should be a private business (peanut farming), and the prices should be subject to a free market system.
The government should not even be involved.
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