Posted on 07/10/2012 8:56:04 AM PDT by JohnKinAK
All over America the corn is dying. If drought conditions persist in the middle part of the country, wheat and soybeans will be next. Weeks of intense heat combined with extraordinarily dry conditions have brought many U.S. corn farmers to the brink of total disaster. If there is not significant rainfall soon, many farmers will be financially ruined. This period of time is particularly important for corn because this is when pollination is supposed to happen. But the unprecedented heat and the extremely dry conditions are playing havoc with that process. With each passing day things get even worse. We have seen the price of a bushel of corn soar 41 percent since June 14th. That is an astounding rise. You may not eat much corn directly, but it is important to realize that corn or corn syrup is just about in everything these days. Just look at your food labels. In the United States today, approximately 75 percent of all processed foods contain corn. So a huge rise in the price of corn is going to be felt all over the supermarket. Corn is also widely used to feed livestock, and if this crisis continues we are going to see a significant rise in meat and dairy prices as well. Food prices in America have already been rising at a steady pace, and so this is definitely not welcome news.
The weather conditions in the middle part of the country during the last couple of months have been highly unusual. The following is from a recent article in the Los Angeles Times....
It's not that the Midwest hasn't been extremely hot before, and it's not that it hasn't been incredibly dry.
But it's unusual for a vast swath of the Midwest to be so very hot and so very dry for so very long -- particularly this early in the summer.
The current heat wave -- which is spurring comparisons to the catastrophic heat of 1936 -- is "out of whack," meteorologist Jim Keeney said Friday in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. Corn crops typically pollinate and mature in June and early July. That is why this time of the year is so vitally important for corn. We have reached a make it or break it moment.
The following is how an Accuweather.com report described what is happening right now....
Either heat or drought can stress the stalks, but both can basically shut down the pollination process. When this happens few, small or no ears of corn form.
According to AccuWeather.com Agricultural Meteorologists, you can't raise a corn crop with less than an inch of rain over six weeks, combined with 100-degree and higher temperatures. However, these conditions have taken place in much of the southern corn belt through the week of July 4, 2012. If pollination does not happen, corn farmers might as well give up.
Just check out what agricultural economist Chris Hurt said the other day....
"Pollination problems just can’t be overcome, even if the weather turns. There’s no turning back. There’s just failure."
At this point, half of all corn in the state of Indiana is already in poor shape.
With each passing day, the condition of the corn gets even worse.
As a recent article in the Chicago Tribune detailed, many farmers feel completely helpless at the moment....
Dave Kestel, who farms about 1,300 acres in Manhattan about 40 miles southwest of Chicago, said he feels helpless.
"Every day you get out there and it's the same heat and cloudless sky," he said. "You see your corn just withering out there, knowing you can't do anything about it."
The United States is suffering from a severe lack of rain. Just look at the chart posted below. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, most of the country is experiencing drought conditions right now....
These drought conditions have also played a major role in the huge number of wildfires that we have seen lately.
There are a few northern states that are not feeling the drought right now, but otherwise the rest of the country is extremely dry.
So what does all of this mean for you and I?
A recent article by Holly Deyo summarized why we should all be praying for rain....
Since 75% of grocery store products use corn as a key ingredient, expect food prices to skyrocket. Corn is also a staple in many fast foods. Corn is in ethanol and the main food source or chickens. In addition to this, maize is in many things that aren't obvious like adhesives, aluminum, aspirin, clothing starch, cosmetics, cough syrup, dry cell batteries, envelopes, fiberglass insulation, gelatin capsules, ink, insecticides, paint, penicillin, powders, rugs and carpets, stamps, talcum, toothpaste, wallpaper, and vitamins. That's just for starters...
This is a huge heads up for you to purchase corn-using products NOW before these conditions reflect in grocery goods. It will be a narrow window of opportunity. These thoughts are being echoed by many agricultural economists as well. According to Businessweek, the outlook for U.S. food prices is bleak....
"When people look at rising prices for hamburger, butter, eggs and other protein sources from higher corn costs, that’s when more money ends up in the food basket," said Minneapolis- based Michael Swanson, a senior agricultural economist at Wells Fargo & Co., the biggest U.S. farm lender. "We were hoping for a break, and we aren’t going to get it." Unfortunately, the fact that the corn is dying all over America is not just a problem for the United States.
As Businessweek also recently noted, the fate of U.S. corn affects the entire globe....
When rain doesn’t fall in Iowa, it’s not just Des Moines that starts fretting. Food buyers from Addis Ababa to Beijing all are touched by the fate of the corn crop in the U.S., the world’s breadbasket in an era when crop shortages mean riots.
This year they have reason to be concerned. Stockpiles of corn in the U.S. tumbled 48 percent between March and June, the biggest drop since 1996, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said last week. And that was before drought hit the Midwest.
The United States is the world’s biggest exporter of corn by far, and if there is a massive corn crop failure in America it is going to be felt to the four corners of the earth.
Just check out what Abdolreza Abbassian, a senior economist with the U.N. Food & Agriculture Organization, said the other day....
"Everyone watches the U.S. because they can rely on it. Without it, the world would starve." Back in February, I wrote an article that suggested that we could see dust bowl conditions return to the middle part of this country in the years ahead.
A lot of people were skeptical of that article.
Not quite as many people are skeptical today.
The following is from a recent article posted on MSNBC entitled "Fears of new Dust Bowl as heat, drought shrivel corn in Midwest"....
Crop insurance agents and agricultural economists are watching closely, a few comparing the situation with the devastating drought of 1988, when corn yields shriveled significantly, while some farmers have begun alluding, unhappily, to the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Far more is at stake in the coming pivotal days: with the brief, delicate phase of pollination imminent in many states, miles and miles of corn will rise or fall on whether rain soon appears and temperatures moderate. As I wrote about last week, if the weather does not turn around soon the implications are going to be staggering.
Even if we got some significant rainfall at this point a tremendous amount of damage has already been done according to the Washington Post....
Jay Armstrong, owner and operator of Armstong Farms in Kansas, flew his small plane over a portion of the affected area and landed with the impression that the potential damage is far worse than is commonly understood.
“At this time of year, when you look down in a place like Indiana or Illinois, you should see just lush green fields,” Armstrong said. “I saw bare soil. I just thought to myself, the market has no idea what’s coming.” So is there significant rain in the forecast?
Unfortunately, the answer is no.
The National Weather Service says that the corn belt will experience "above-normal temperatures" and "below-normal rainfall" over the next week.
At this point it does not look like there will be any significant rainfall for the foreseeable future....
"We got a break in the temperatures over the weekend but no rain of significance is in sight for next seven days," said Jim Keeney, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service the US central region based in Kansas City, Missouri. Needless to say, that is really bad news.
Right now we just have more heat and more dryness to look forward to. The skies are like iron and the earth is like brass. We like to think that we have conquered nature, but at moments such as these we see that is not true at all.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article about all of the reasons why we should be concerned about the second half of 2012. In that article I did not even mention drought and crop failures. Sometimes major problems have a way of piling on top of themselves.
The U.S. economy is already in bad enough shape without adding major crop failures to the mix. This is something that we just don't need right now.
But it looks like we are going to have to deal with it. Unless there is a major change in the weather, food prices are going to go up even more and large numbers of farmers and ranchers are going to be absolutely devastated.
Let us all pray for rain. We desperately need it.
If God knows something will happen, can something different happen? Why judge it?
Can we save peas?
Meanwhile...0bama’s Welfare, Food Stamps and Disability ‘Legacy’
is coming home to roost.
Can we save the peas?
Meanwhile...0bama’s Welfare, Food Stamps and Disability ‘Legacy’
is coming home to roost.
Well I do believe things happen as God wills, but I don’t believe any of it is punishment. it’s just the way He wants it to be.
Whirled peas?
Yes. Even in the absence of a foreknower, it would be true that, for instance, a certain coin flip will end in only one of heads or tails, not both - yet that fact doesn't mean that the other outcome was impossible. Likewise, neither does God's foreknowledge of the outcome mean that the other outcome is impossible.
How strange the chart looks driest when democrats hold the WH.
That’s funny. Just got back from New Jersey and there are corn fields doing great all over the place.
In fact, little farm stands selling corn all over the place doing great, too.
And we had some of that great New Jersey corn on the fourth of July, and MAN does NJ grow some delicious corn!
Do you mean God can be wrong?
He knows the time of your death doesn’t He? How could His knowledge of that change?
No offense, but while I’m sure you believe you do, I don’t think you really KNOW anything about God’s foreknowledge.
The sky is falling!
We’re doomed!
How will the U.S. continue to send the hundreds of millions of tons to other countries then?????
The corn West of Minneapolis looks great this year. “Knee high by the 4th of July does not apply.” It was chest high last week.
Trouble is, NJ doesn’t feed the world. We farm and truck. We farm in central Illinois and have farms in Ohio. We truck all over the midwest and parts south and north. The crops look bad everywhere. Usually there are drought areas and good areas. This year, the drought is so very wide spread. Usually, if the farms in Illinois are dry, then the Ohio farms are good. This year, they are both so very dry. The worst fear is they Obama will put on a grain embargo and the prices will drop...thus putting the farmer in a position of not being about to meet even their input costs. This has the potential to be a major disaster.
I know you live in Michigan in a different area than I do but it has been so dry I can tell because part of my back yard borders a large area of cattail swamp....1/2 of the yard usually cannot get the grass cut because the tires of the tractor leave deep ruts due to the wet ground until around July. I was able to cut that area totally by the beginning of June.....a large part of my front yard has gone dormet. A few good rains and it will green up again...
I don’t believe it’s a matter of God wanting or not wanting anything or allowing or not allowing. I believe those are human traits. I believe things happen as He knows they will. To fulfill His plan.
The consequences and reasons are there for us to ponder.
Do you mean God can be wrong?
No. Whichever the outcome, He's know it forever.
He knows the time of your death doesn’t He?
Yes.
How could His knowledge of that change?
Who said anything about His knowledge changing?
No offense, but while I’m sure you believe you do, I don’t think you really KNOW anything about God’s foreknowledge.
Naturally my finite brain can't completely understand the infinite God - but you have yet to show that my understanding is any less than yours.
Out here in the southeastern part of the valley, yes. In fact, where I live was huge farms at one point not too long ago. Many have given way to suburban sprawl but many remain. It’s all irrigated. Citrus, soy, field crops for hay, and citrus once dominated the landscape. Also loads of dairy farms. Most of the citrus is long gone but many of the other crops remain. I miss the citrus most of all though — one subdivision here left large parts of the orchards in tact in the “common” park like areas with in the property. Very pretty and smells wonderful when it blooms.
In my neck of the ‘woods’ there will be a very reduced ‘gas’ I mean corn crop this season. It is also a NASTY addiction to hide under the ignore warning mode!!!! We hired BamBamKennedy and like minded liberals to rule over US regardless of ‘warnings’!!!!
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