Posted on 08/12/2010 6:31:43 AM PDT by Texas Fossil
LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Rising grain prices from Russia's drought and fires will pressure populations already hit by the financial crisis and could stoke unrest -- particularly in the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Europe.
Wheat prices have risen by nearly 70 percent since June after Russia suffered its worst drought in 130 years and are at their highest since 2008, when the last major food price rally sparked protests and riots in a string of emerging nations.
(Excerpt) Read more at alertnet.org ...
Our current "leadership" has taken steps to put us in the position for the "ruler" to use food as a subjection tool Note HR 2749 passed by Congress last year. I refer to it as the FDA takeover of food production. Of course the spin on the bill is that it is about "food safety" but it is in fact about taking control of U.S. food production, to the point of making it illegal to grow your own food.
As far as I know the Senate has not voted on the bill.
This is a stealth issue that should be exposed.
Why worry? We can just start sending them the corn liquor (ethanol) to drink that we are subsidizing to be made from our grain. It’s damned near as good as the Vodka!
Hey Obamathon, how about kicking up the ethonol made from corn to a higher percentage of fuel...that should be the ticket. Oh I forgot, your EPA is already considering this.
The USA grows somewhere around an unbelievable 1 ton of corn per person per year! We have plenty to share.
Let them eat oil.
Been driving around Mn lately and I can report the corn crop looks fantastic. I hear Iowa got slammed this week though.
I wish less of that corn were going into gas tanks and sodas!
It is interesting how differently ME & Europeans view the price of things we purchase from things we sell them. Oil embargo’s are one thing, but food prices (out export) is quite another. They cannot eat the oil.
There is no better example of how freedom in the U.S. has benefitted the world than the “agricultural green revolution” of the past 30-40 years. But our current government can yet mess that up. This nation has never known famine, but if you want to change that, let government take total control all of our food production and distribution.
the chinese are buying up all the US surplus
The US is still paying farmers not to grow right?
Why there isn’t any outrage about this, I’ll never know.
No, except for CRP. They are still paid a "subsidy" which is mainly to retain some control on the production. USDA is a huge beaurocracy.
My family has farmed in this county in Texas for 110+ years and before that in AL & GA. When the first "farm programs" were instituted during the depression, my great grandfather refused the subsidy for 3 years. Now you can opt out of the program if you like, but it makes no economic sense to do that. There is a lot mis-understood about U.S. farm production. (about the reality of it, not what you read).
US grain exports have been surging since 2009 and farmers have planted much more wheat this year.
It’s a blessing/curse - if corn (ethanol) farmers are planting for export, what happens to us food/fuel prices? 98% of grocery store food includes corn fillers and our gas tanks are mandated to have at least a little bit of corn water in most markets.
“We have plenty to share.”
Share...like the Middle East shares its oil with us?
“They are still paid a “subsidy” which is mainly to retain some control on the production. USDA is a huge beaurocracy.”
We have to help ADM pay for those adds on Sunday morning political talk shows.
No, I barely know any. Have an old friend from Minsk though.
The problem with U.S. agriculture is not production, but marketing and how to do it profitably.
The grain speculators have made all the profit on this one. When wheat harvest began here about 7-8 weeks ago, the local elevator price was $2.38 per bushel. The current price is about $6.00 per bushel. The excuse for the low price was because of the wet cool year the protein content was low (it was not). Then there were 2 days when the local elevator would not buy wheat at all, because of the Gulf Oil Spill, another excuse for a lie. What it was all about was to take advantage of the situation.
If you think that the world grain market is not controlled by the marketers (ADM, Continental, Cargill) you are mistaken. The only time they do not control it is when the supply is low or demand is much more than production.
If you are ever hungry in this country, do not blame the farmer. Blame the beaurocrats and the marketers/speculators.
I had looked at some of your posts and was just curious. I only speak English (& weak Spanish), but have become comfortable with machine translation.
Hopefully I don’t come across as an ESL student :(
I discovered machine translators when I was following the Persian news out of Iran. Made a number of friends that way, but found that there is no good translator for Farsi. It was necessary to make very simple statements, and to reverse-translate to verify that intent was close.
But it did work.
I am a history student, but not a Middle Eastern History student. I have come to respect the Persians in Iran. Not the stinking Mullahs (or their Hezbellah buddies).
And food is cheap here because of the farm subsidies.
Don't know how true this is. Yesterday's closing grain elevator bid at Beatrice/Dorchester, Nebraska was $5.65 per bushel. On 14 Jan 2010 it was $4.54. Looks more like 25% to me. I don't have the number for June, but I doubt if it was down to $3.30.
I live in WV, a couple of weeks ago I did a trip to Indiana. The corn throughout Ohio and Indiana looked very good. If that is indicative of the rest of the midwest it will be a good year.
Please explain which farm program pays farmers not to grow crops.
http://campusbrownie.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/why-do-we-pay-farmers-not-to-grow-food/
“Farmers who grow staple crops, like wheat, cotton, corn and soybeans, get a check based on the acres they grow. Some other crops have set prices, and if the price goes below that the government makes up the difference for the farmers. Farmers are even paid not to grow certain crops, so that a limited supply will keep prices higher”
All staple crops are at near-record production levels. How much more could be produced?
Doesn’t matter, we’re throwing $66b away to farmers for subsidies.
That’s it.
Farm subsidies do NOT depress production, they encourage it, at or below break-even prices.
Lower commodity prices just mean more room for processing and promotion mark-up; the finished products have a price determined by the market.
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