Part of the problem is that 40% of the US corn crop is being turned into ethanol as part of the biofuel boondoggle. Not only do consumers feel the effects at grocery checkout, but also every April 15th as the ethanol boondoggle is subsidized from planting the seed to pumping it into your tank.
The biofuels boondoggle is a painful household budget kink to Americans.
To those in developing countries, it could be a matter of life and death.
This really isn’t “news”...cattle ranchers were forced to sell off herds the past few years due to feed prices, drought, etc...the effects on the supply chain are now starting to be felt as a result.
Check the market price of corn.Farmers will produce a huge crop this year and most will lose money doing it.
Can either of you two agricultural economics geniuses explain how corn, which was over $8 a bushel last year, and now is at about $3.75, less than half of a year ago, is part of the problem?
Oh, and while you're at it, do you have any genius level ideas what we are going to do with the mountains of surplus corn we are going to harvest in about 10 weeks?
Plow it under? Burn it to heat our homes and fuel our cars?
Another idea? Beuller?
Acres in corn, like per capita consumption of beef, had been declining for decades until fuel ethanol.
Meat exports of all kinds - beef, pork, chicken - are at record levels. In a world market, the declining value of the dollar is very evident.
The price of corn is so low that there will be a flood of cheap pork and chicken in six months or maybe less. Low prices mean more government ‘help’, and corn and soybean producers have gone whole hog into climate change, expecting to be paid for enduring it.
Beef might stay high because of government persecution of beef producers, and because the premium product will command a premium price in the world market.