More Bad Weather Could See Record Food Prices

CNBC.com ^ | May 17, 2011 | Patrick Allen

[NRG1973]

With drought threatening food production in the EU, US and China, analysts at Renaissance Capital believe the next 8-10 weeks will be crucial to prices in 2011 and 2012.

“The food price threat for 2011-2012 is very significant, but may disappear in August. It depends entirely on the weather over May to July,” said Renaissance Capital’s Charles Robertson.

“If we do not get the right mix of rain and sun in the coming 8-10 weeks, then later this year we will see record price levels for the most important cereal in the world today – corn,” he said.

If this were the case, Robertson believes prices for wheat and other cereals could also see record prices.

[NRG1973]

This one thing that struggling consumers just don't need.

[calex59]

Yeah, it’s not inflation that is causing prices to go up, it is the weather.(snicker)

[OB1kNOb]

The flooded Mississippi River basin sure ain’t helping the farmers any right now. What was planted before the heavy rains and flooding will likely be destroyed and what wasn’t planted yet will be too wet to plant for a while.

[FreeMaine]

So the US govt floods some of the most productive farm land in the world to save some slums, what a bunch of fools.

[jmcenanly]

Is this going to be like the 75 year spell of ‘bad weather’ that accounted for below forecast harvests in the Soviet Union between 1917 and 1992?

[jjotto]

“If we do not get the right mix of rain and sun in the coming 8-10 weeks, then later this year we will see record price levels...

Everyone who hears news in the Corn Belt hears this exact statement every few weeks during every growing season!

So is it drought in grain-producing areas, or is it flooding?

[nascarnation]

It’s been real wet here in central Indiana.
There was some planting last week, 4 or 5 good days, but the rain has returned.
Late planting isn’t necessarily a huge problem, but it narrows the window of success.

[jjotto]

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20110517/BUSINESS01/105170361/?odyssey=nav|head

While Iowa’s corn crop is ahead of five-year averages, corn planting nationally still lags behind schedule because of cold, wet weather in the eastern Corn Belt and because of flooding in the lower Mississippi River valley, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said...

...The national crop is now 63 percent planted, the USDA said, compared with 87 percent planted last year and 75 percent planted over a five-year average...

...Strong winds early last week enabled Iowa farmers to bring corn planting to near-completion and put almost half of the state’s soybean crop in the ground...

[hinckley buzzard]

Ohio is waterlogged. Annual crop maybe half or less of Iowa's, nevertheless it has yet to be plantable here. If rains clear this weekend as predicted, best case scenario, there will at best a late crop.

[21twelve]

Lots of parallels to the Great Depression.

“Over Exuberance” Roaring 20’s vs. Roaring 90’s and Baby Boomers.

Marxist President FDR vs. Obama

Weather: Dust Bowl vs. “Climate Change”

Crops: Poor Planting Techniques vs. Corn for Ethanol

But yes, I think they are grasping at this as an excuse for inflation. I mean, prices at the store can’t be due to increased fuel costs and the low value of the dollar!

[SueRae]

Maybe then they’ll stop burning corn for ethanol. I’m fortunate that I don’t have a many struggles as some of my friends and neighbors do right now...but I’ve noticed a big difference in food costs. Milk bought at a local dairy store up over .40 per half gallon. It is very tough out there, almost impossible for those who are already suffering longterm.

[TASMANIANRED]

Then add in the cost of fuel.

[Rudder]

If you live here, in Appalachia, you don't have to be a survivalist by design, we live off local livestock and garden harvest. I know many good old boys who go to old oil wells (and new ones, too) and get the "drip gas" from the condenser tanks---they run their vehicles on the stuff.

Right now, most folks here go to Walmart and the grocery for routine shopping...but they don't have to, and will do so less and less as store prices increase.

[Rudder]

...there will at best a late crop.

Mine have been late for the past 12 years in a row, maybe longer.

[SunkenCiv]

One-half gallon of oil in the form of pesticides per bushel of corn would cost $2 to $3 per bushel. If this were true -- and it clearly isn't -- it should be enough to illustrate to literally anyone that the price of petroleum is quite literally the ONLY thing driving corn prices. And this idiotic piece of agitprop -- from a hydrogen "energy" advocacy site -- also shows the guy in the encounter suit spraying chemical fertilizer, a sight that I've never been privileged to see, what with me *growing up on a farm*. The Bum Rap on Biofuels Campaign to vilify ethanol revealed