Posted on 03/09/2007 8:44:20 AM PST by libertarianPA
WASHINGTON - Strong demand for corn from ethanol plants is driving up the cost of livestock and will raise prices for beef, pork and chicken, the Agriculture Department said Friday.
Meat and poultry production will fall as producers face higher feed costs, the department said in its monthly crop report. Ethanol fuel, which is blended with gasoline, is consuming 20 percent of last year's corn crop and is expected to gobble up more than 25 percent of this year's crop.
The price of corn, the main feed for livestock, has driven the cost of feeding chickens up 40 percent, according to the National Chicken Council. The council says that chicken, the most popular meat with consumers, will soon cost more at the grocery store. The industry worries the competition from ethanol could cause a shortage of corn.
The average price of corn, unchanged from last month, is $3.20 a bushel, up from $2 last year.
For soybeans, analysts said prices are averaging $6.30 a bushel, up from last month's average of $6.20. Last year's price was $5.66. Wheat prices are averaging $4.25 a bushel, unchanged from last month and up from $3.42 last year.
Also in the crop report, the department updated the citrus forecast to include the effects of a January freeze on California oranges. The California crop will be 39 percent smaller than last year, and combined with freezes that are expected to reduce the Florida crop, the nation's crop is expected to be 18 percent smaller than last season.
Imagine that--you burn your food and food prices go up.
The average price of corn, unchanged from last month, is $3.20 a bushel, up from $2 last year.
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HA! Did we not call this one? When the greenies started talking ethanol, we saw it coming. CORN SHORTAGE!!! Raise prices. So, now, how many bushels of corn does it take to produce 1 gallon of ethanol ??? That should be revealing.
No argument here.
Time to stop paying farmers to not grow things and maybe, just maybe, they will start to grow more corn.
Even though the ethanol true believers were told
1. We'd end up having to import ethanol because we couldn't produce enough to meet the mandates
2. Prices of other goods would go up because of demand for ethanol raw materials
we were told we were ignorant and nothing bad would happen. Now bush is in brazil and we're going to start importing more ethanol from them because the US can't meet demand. And the costs of other goods are going up.
Next, prices of land go up as more land is put back to agriculture use. But I've been assured that won't happen!
The rioting in Mexico and Latin America over corn prices is due to the corn shortage.
That newly liberalized eminent domain ruling will come in handy now.
The Pres signed the agreement with Brazil for ethanol today and the rain forest friends of the Amazon are already soliciting funds to stop this insanity.
pingaroo!......
The old question was "Guns or butter?"
The new question is "Food or fuel?"............
the writer is a twit
but the Republicans did spend money like Democrats
and have been punished for it at the ballot box
AlGore declaring himself "meatless" is like Rosie O'Donuts declaring herself fat free..........
1) Ethanol is more expensive than gas, so adding ethanol to your fuel drives up the cost of your fuel.
2) Ethanol decreases your gas mileage, so you burn more of the more expensive fuel.
3) High demand raises the price of both corn and beef, so now your food bills go up too.
Ethanol is just a great, great idea.
Right now, March corn futures are $4.09 per bushel.
Follow the Archer-Daniels-Midland campaign contributions ...
ping
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