National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) First Vice President Bart Schott did a great “Our View” column this past week about why there should be no conflict between “traditional” and organic farmers. He writes:
As a farmer, having marketing choices and diversity is not only a good idea; it is essential to profitability. It also gives consumers options. In that respect, organic farming is no different than agritourism, specialty grains or a host of novel and creative ideas that make farming a vital and evolving profession.
He says the alleged conflict between the two types of farming practices reminds him of a song from the musical Oklahoma! – “The Farmer and the Cowman Should be Friends.” I would say that goes for all of agriculture. Crop and livestock producers should be friends, organic and traditional farmers should be friends, liberal and conservative farm groups should be friends, etc. We are all in this together. Creating division within our fragile industry that makes up only a small fraction of the general public that we serve only makes us more vulnerable to attack on the legislative, policy and public opinion fronts. Like the song says, “Territory folks should stick together, Territory folks should all be pals.” Agriculture is our territory – let’s stick together!
Here is a YouTube video of “The Farmer and the Cowman” from the original motion picture version of Oklahoma!
U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission to Morocco, Egypt and Jordan has been immortalized in a 17 minute slide presentation by Chuck Zimmerman of ZimmComm New Media who documented the mission in photos and audio:
A new policy paper by Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy released this week and getting quite a bit of press finds that “the current U.S. biofuels program that promotes corn-based ethanol is far from environmental sustainability and should be dramatically revamped.”
The institute does not attempt to hide the fact that the study was funded with oil money. It is clearly stated in the acknowledgments at the end of the report which thank Chevron Technology Ventures alone for “their generous support of this project.” When asked about it by the WSJ, Institute energy expert and one of the report’s authors Amy Myers Jaffe responded that “the Baker Institute and Rice University receive funding from a wide variety of sources and has a reputation for independence analysis.”
There is quite a bit of information contained in this report that deals directly with corn production and corn ethanol compared to other crops, which includes fertilizer runoff into the Gulf of Mexico and indirect land use change. The major recommendations made by the institute are to revise the Renewable Fuel Standard to make it “more achievable,” eliminate the tariff on imported ethanol, get rid of the blender’s tax credit and “avoid defining corn-based ethanol as a “low-carbon fuel,” a move that would be based only on political expediency and not on scientific analysis.”
All of that sounds like exactly a Big Oil wish list for making biofuels just go away.
There’s still a lot of corn in “field storage” out there, as the cold and snow continues throughout the corn belt.
The term “field storage” may be somewhat euphemistic, but pretty accurate at this point, since most of it will probably be there for some time yet. While I have heard some growers say that leaving corn in the field through winter is not totally unheard of, it is definitely not normal and even kind of sad – as Stu Ellis writes in the Decatur Herald-Review:
There is something about a cornfield full of snow that reflects tragedy. “What happened here?” “Why wasn’t this harvested earlier?” “Was this farmer hurt, or was there a death in the family?” Corn is just not supposed to be standing in snow, but currently 5% of the US corn crop remains in the field and there is snow on the ground throughout the Cornbelt.
USDA is still keeping track of the harvest, although they stopped issuing official weekly updates before Christmas. According to meteorologist Brad Rippey, “The corn harvest has reached just 71 percent in North Dakota, meaning that more than 1 out of 4 fields is left to be harvested there,” Rippey said. That is the worst of it, but there is still 3-7 percent of corn left in the fields of Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin. “That is very little progress from what we saw two weeks ago, mainly due to the big holiday blizzard that the western corn belt experienced making any field work just about impossible,” Rippey said.
The good news is that we still have plenty of corn to meet demand both domestically and internationally. The corn that is left remains in pretty good condition, although test weights will be lower and mold could be an issue. And, most importantly, the farmers who struggled with the elements in 2009 to produce another excellent crop to feed and fuel the country and the world will be back at it again this spring, as long as the good Lord is willing and even if the creeks do rise.
“Agriculture is a business. Farming without a financial motive is gardening.”
So says Russ Parson in his recent LA Time article called the California Cook. This article may do the best job I have seen yet at tackling the tough and often controversial subject of how our food is produced and where it comes from.
Parson’s simple and direct logic is admirable. “Not only do farmers have expenses to meet just like any other business, but they also need to be rewarded when they do good work. Any plan that places further demands on farmers without an offsetting profit incentive is doomed to fail.”
You may not like all of the points made in his article, but there are some real gems that make it a worthy read.
“Over the last 50 years, American farmers performed an agricultural miracle, all but eliminating hunger as a serious health issue in this country. But that battle has been won, and though those gains must be maintained, the demands of today — developing a system that delivers flavor as well as quantity and does it in an environmentally friendly way — are different.”
Although he focuses on primarily fruits and vegetables, most of the discussion could relate to corn and soybeans. Certain farming practices being called for by well fed, wealthy Americans would be ideal as far as they are workable. However, Parsons concedes we need to make that leap with the full knowledge that most of these demands take more time, labor and will result in reduced production. In summary….they have to cost a lot more.
Mass media darlings have recently tried to portray corn as an almost omnipresent ingredient in the cheapest, least desirable sorts of foods. Anyone watching an urban journalist, unacquainted with agriculture or even how to prepare their own meal in many cases, would be led to believe that fast food joints take various corn products, mix them together and viola! There is your meal. But, some people are catching onto a new trend – haute corn cuisine.
In St. Louis, legions of foodies, generally somewhat persnickety about their grub, pick up the monthly local Sauce Magazine to determine what is in and what is out as far as the local restaurant scene goes. To the surprise of those who listened to the negative barrage on corn, this month the magazine wrote a feature elevating simple corn meal to the ranks of ingredients featured previously such as foie gras and classic cocktails. It seems corn is the new “it” food.
So the next time that you hear someone droning on ad nauseam about the ubiquitous nature of corn and bemoaning it is just filler for the common man, speak up. True food aficionados know about corn, and they love it.
The concept of what constitutes a factory farm, industrial farm or a family farm is an elusive target. Especially given the loose way in which the terms are used. A great new blog by Mike Wilson of Farm Futures discusses the problem with labels on today’s farms. In it he states “The fact is, ‘commercial’ farmers – those 20% of U.S. farmers who produce 80% of our nation’s food – have an image problem. A lot of misinformed consumers, longing for something from their past, want nothing to do with food produced from modern technology.”
Consider that 98% of the corn grown in this country still comes from family operated farms. The same people that have always produced this crop, but few would survive without the aforementioned modern technology…nor would our reasonable food prices.
Given the tight profit margins and economy of scale needed in today’s agriculture the lines have been blurred. A typical Midwestern grain farm is likely 1,000 acres or more, has multiple operators who are related, and they own land and rent from multiple landlords. They may even be incorporated for tax purposes but they are a true family farm none-the-less.
But for better or worse everyone seems to want to label and put things in nice compartments. The problem is such black and white labels lend themselves to easy slandering and misrepresentation as well. As Wilson says, “You’re going to need to stop and tell your story if you want to reconnect with these folks…meaning consumers.
“Farmers are used to people having sympathy for them,” says Blake Hurst, who farms near Tarkio, MO. “When you say farmer it usually gets a positive response. As we’re finding out, not everybody has that positive response anymore,” according to Hurst who is rapidly becoming a respected farm activist.
Hurst notes that these consumers are finding ways to make their feelings known. And it’s not just through legislation on Capitol Hill. They shop at organic stores and don’t mind paying twice as much for food that may not be any more nutritious or safe. They contribute dollars to groups like Humane Society of the United States. They listen to food activists like Michael Pollan, a journalist and bestselling author who masquerades as a food expert. And they participate in nuisance lawsuits against livestock farmers.
“I don’t think we can ignore these consumers anymore,” Hurst says. “We may have to be out in corn fields with a video camera, talking about what we do and why we do it, and tout the benefits for the environment. The consumer wants to know those things and we’re going to have to tell them.”
One great example of how a pork producer has embraced the internet and Social Media to tell Ag’s story can be found on YouTube. Chris Chinn does a great job of telling the story of her family operation and her personal story helps us all. This simple video is getting thousands of viewers. So what is the story of your farm?
There is no question that the 2000′s were the decade that ethanol came of age.
Production increased from just 1.4 billion gallons of production in 1999 to an amazing 10.6 billion gallons and ethanol is now blended in more than 80% of fuel sold nationwide. At the beginning of the decade there were only 54 ethanol plants in the US – today there are more than 200 plants in 26 states. The ethanol industry supports almost half a million jobs and generated an estimated $12 billion in federal tax revenues and $9 billion in state and local revenues in 2008, according to the Renewable Fuels Association.
With success came criticism and despite those accomplishments, about halfway through the decade, ethanol suddenly found itself the target of critics so the industry had to start defending itself instead of focusing on the growth of this renewable, domestic fuel. Those battles, from food versus fuel to indirect land use change, are following ethanol into the new decade but the industry is not taking it lying down. Stay tuned, the new decade promises to be another exciting episode in the life of ethanol!
Some people are so desperate to attack high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) that they don’t worry about the facts.
An alert Corn Commentary reader sent us a link to this post from Mercola.com, which is basically a health product website. Kind of ironic that Dr. Mercola doesn’t like cola, isn’t it?
Anyway, so this Dr. Mercola headlines that “Scientists have proved for the first time that fructose, a cheap form of sugar used in thousands of food products and soft drinks, can damage human metabolism and is fueling the obesity crisis.” He provides a couple of links, one of which is to the actual study which was actually published back in April 2009 and involved people who were already overweight.
Apparently, the Times Online just discovered that study last month and decided that it proved HFCS “can cause dangerous growths of fat cells around vital organs and is able to trigger the early stages of diabetes and heart disease.” The story then got picked up by Tom Laskawy at Grist, who pretty much quoted it verbatim without checking it out at all – and then found out that “almost every sentence in the article contained at least one inaccurate statement,” according to one of the scientists who did the study! Laskawy did come back and made corrections in the post – blaming it all on the Times for misleading him – but says “the fundamental issue is that we consume too much sugar in any form.”
One of the main fact errors in the original article is that it equated fructose with high fructose corn syrup, which are not the same thing. But the facts didn’t matter to the author of the original Times Online article, and those who picked up on it failed to check it out themselves. That is how rumors get spread and reputations get ruined. This whole world wide web is a wonderful thing, but like the wild tales that spread via email, much of it is exaggerated at best and just plain lies at worst. A wise word for all of us in this immediate information age – check it out before you pass it on.
National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) First Vice President Bart Schott did a great “Our View” column this past week about why there should be no conflict between “traditional” and organic farmers. He writes:
The 
The term “field storage” may be somewhat euphemistic, but pretty accurate at this point, since most of it will probably be there for some time yet. While I have heard some growers say that leaving corn in the field through winter is not totally unheard of, it is definitely not normal and even kind of sad – as 
The concept of what constitutes a factory farm, industrial farm or a family farm is an elusive target. Especially given the loose way in which the terms are used. 
Production increased from just 1.4 billion gallons of production in 1999 to an amazing 10.6 billion gallons and ethanol is now blended in more than 80% of fuel sold nationwide. At the beginning of the decade there were only 54 ethanol plants in the US – today there are more than 200 plants in 26 states. The ethanol industry supports almost half a million jobs and generated an estimated $12 billion in federal tax revenues and $9 billion in state and local revenues in 2008, according to the 
An alert Corn Commentary reader sent us a link to 
