Posted on 01/12/2007 6:47:18 AM PST by xzins
High Demand Causes Surge in Corn Prices By LIBBY QUAID ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) - Ethanol plants and foreign buyers are gobbling the nation's corn supplies, pushing prices as high as $3.40 a bushel, the Agriculture Department said Friday.
Farmers haven't seen prices this high for more than a decade. The monthly crop report forecast even better prices than in December, raising the estimate 10 cents to $3 to $3.40 a bushel.
Robust prices have made corn more expensive for livestock feed and as food for people. But a drop-off in those uses was more than offset by growing demand from foreign markets. Exports are forecast to claim 2.25 billion bushels of corn from last year's crop, up from last month's forecast of 2.2 billion bushels.
Overall, the corn crop came in at 10.5 billion bushels, slightly under last month's forecast of 10.7 billion bushels. Anticipated yields were 2.1 bushels lower per acre, and the area planted and harvested was slightly smaller than expected.
The amount of corn used for ethanol, forecast at 2.15 billion bushels, was unchanged from last month.
Nationwide, supplies of corn are expected to drop to 752 million bushels, a drop from last month's forecast of 935 million bushels and a steep decline from last year's supply of 1.967 billion bushels.
Wonder when the dims are going to go after ADM for price gouging?
ping
Ah, yes --
"Opportunity Cost" -- the fact of life that everybody knows and lives with...
With the exception of Economists, Ecologists, and Gummint Officials.....
I'm all for alternative energy by any means.
If it's economical, it'll be used and it should be encouraged.
Let's end dependence on ME oil and let them eat sand.
There is so much packaging and promotion cost in the use of corn for people food that this should not inflate that price.
Feed for livestock is a different issue. There's barely a middleman in that transaction.
I'd expect meat, milk, cheese prices to rise.
Monsanto has tried to control the market for genetically altered corn and soybean seeds. Monsanto spent billions in the 1980's to invent specialized seeds and sold the rights to make them to big seed companies like Pioneer.
I heard an interesting fact this week. If they took all the corn produced in this country (and I mean all - even the feed corn etc.) and used it to create Ethanol, it would still only equate to roughly 10 percent of our fuel needs. Ethanol as an alternative to gas is a pipe dream. We do need to end our dependance on ME oil, and we need to start drilling in the gulf and Alaska.
If they drive the price too high for genetically altered seed, the farmers can revert to simply hybrid or even back to heritage. That would be an eye-opener, wouldn't it?
Save seed and plant it. Every farmer should do that with 10 to 20 acres every year, anyway, just to keep it viable. Yield would be smaller, but satisfaction would be greater, and cost would be less.
there is a little more to it than just plant it. the farmer has to go over the field of corn at least 9 times from spring to fall. nitogen,herbicide,pesticide,spaying for weeds and more...
Alternatives are not replacements.
A couple of replacements:
coal liquefaction (turning coal to coal diesel, etc.)
Nuclear: replaces gas and oil driven electric utility generation.
We have nearly a 300 year supply of coal if we divert from oil to coal diesel.
That would be a thought; but unfortunately, premise registration and seed tagging is being introduced in the states also.
Wouldn't beet sugar be more efficient? Isn't that what Brazil is using?
Don't need to worry about seed tagging with heritage seeds.
That's why every farmer should plant 10 to 20 acres of it a year. Keep it viable and available.
I think they're using sugar cane.
I believe we can grow sugar cane in our south.
too many obese folks in the US anyway
cranking up the food price should help
/partial sarcasm
The tagging is to distroy the Seed Savers Exchange and Banks.
The seed tagging is no different then the animal tagging.
Monsanto genetically alters seed and animal DNA then patents it.
" too many obese folks in the US anyway
cranking up the food price should help
/partial sarcasm "
I hope you can maintain your humor when your neighbors who can no longer afford to buy food come looking for yours....
Don't think food-riots and looting are possible here? Think post-Katrina New Orleans on a national scale.....
That's why heritage seeds are so important. They are the ones that our grandparents and great-grandparents used to use....natural seeds for natural plants.
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