Agriculture 101
Posted: May 12, 2008
The basics of agriculture and food production should be a required course for the media. They just don’t get it.
At a recent press conference in Washington DC, National Corn Growers Association CEO Rick Tolman attempted to explain the difference between field corn and sweet corn to the media. “The kind of corn we produce that goes into ethanol is not the corn that you eat, it’s not corn on the cob or creamed corn,” he said. “Last year we had 85 million harvested acres of field corn producing 13.1 billion bushels or 366 million tons valued at about $52 billion. On the sweet corn side, it was 631,000 acres valued at about a billion dollars.”
During the question and answer time, one reporter asked, “Isn’t it fair to argue that food prices are increasing because land that would be devoted for food corn is being switched to grow ethanol corn?”
Patiently, Tolman explained that the areas that grow sweet corn are primarily devoted to growing sweet corn because they feed into completely different processing and distribution channels. “You don’t grow corn just for ethanol,” he explained. “The field corn is grown and the farmer sells it to whoever gives him the best price - livestock, export or ethanol plant. For sweet corn, it can only go to sweet corn.”
Tolman further explained that he would find it hard to believe that any farmer who grows sweet corn would switch to growing field corn, since sweet corn sells for a much higher price.
However, the reporter still didn’t get it and cornered Rick after the conference saying, “Why don’t I understand this?” Rick proceeded to give him a more detailed explanation. Maybe he does now, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.