Posted By Cindy April 10, 2008
Columnist Alan Guebert says a mouthful about food prices in a column this week entitled “Don’t Complain With a Full Mouth.”
Guebert details how the late former Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz used a loaf of bread as a visual aid to demonstrate the farmer’s share of the food dollar.
“Farmers don’t set the price of food,” Old Fencerow to Fencerow would proclaim as he unwrapped the bread before an audience. “The market does.”
He’d then move the loaf, slice by slice, from one side of the podium to the other to illustrate what each step of the breadmaking process – flour milling, baking, packaging, transportation, wholesaling, advertising, retailing, labor – cost.
Finally, with just one piece of the loaf remaining, Butz would ask “And the farmer’s share? Well, it’s right here,” he’d reply, waving high the last slice, “and it’s the heel!”
Guebert also notes that the major player in the market when it comes to setting food prices are Mother Nature and Uncle Sam.
So, go ahead and complain about today’s rising food prices. Make sure you point to today’s biggest pushers, though – weather and Washington, not farmers.
Posted By Ken April 9, 2008
Here’s two pieces of advice for young filmmakers who want to make the ground-breaking documentary attacking a popular industry:
- Make sure no relative has connections to the industry you target.
- More important: Should a relative have such a connection, and you ignore the above advice, make sure this relative also isn’t a journalist.
Such is the problem now facing poor Curt Ellis, whose sister married the brother of a Marshall, Mo. newspaper columnist.
Marcia Gorrell writes poignantly about life on the farm for the Marshall, Mo., Democrat-News. And her brother’s wife’s brother not only called field corn “crap” because he was stupid enough to try and taste it like it was corn on the cob, but made a movie about it and is out pushing it. In her most recent column, she writes:
“It hurts — alot. It hurts because we take pride in what we do. We are proud of the fact that Americans pay less than of their take-home pay for food than any other country. We don’t think our food supply is “too cheap.” We work hard to make that happen.”
Gorrell goes on from here, and talks about how the mainstream media, many of whom have never worked a field in their lives, fell out of their chairs and on their knees with praise for “King Corn,” eating up every falsehood like it was buttered popcorn.
For a real writer with farmland roots, it was indeed painful for Gorrell to see. And I’m sure that at the next family gathering, it will come up (As it has in the past — she’s already sent Ellis a five-page letter critiquing the movie). But something tells me the more they promote their film, the more they will hear about it from farmers and family who know better.
Posted By Ken April 8, 2008
In March 2007, the USDA stated that growers intended to plant 90.5 million acres of corn. Given that farmers had planted 78.3 million acres in 2006, this was a very optimistic prediction. This past month, the projection from USDA was 86 million acres, down from last year but still way above what was seen before.
High input costs, especially fertilizer, are greatly to blame, but the National Corn Growers Association has held that the number of planted corn acres will be above the USDA prediction. Today, we have further confirmation, via the Associated Press.
Darrell Good, University of Illinois agricultural economics professor:
“The pendulum has swung decidedly in favor of corn at this point. For a lot of the central and northern Illinois farms, corn pencils out easily to be $200 an acre more profit than soybeans.”
Last year, the final corn planting was 3.1 million acres over and above the USDA’s prediction. Question now is — how high in 2008?
Time to break another record, growers!
Posted By Cindy April 4, 2008
The Japanese are getting into soul food these days.
According to the U.S. Grains Council, cornbread has become a hot new food trend in Japan among professional and home bakers. In an attempt to ride the wave of cornbread’s popularity in the country, the Council’s Corn Food Promotion Program has initiated a Web site dedicated to informing Japanese customers about the food. The idea is to introduce new corn foods which allow Japanese corn millers to remain in the food industry despite a shrinking market. Decreasing corn grit consumption in the beer and snack industries have contributed to this market change.
The newly launched Web site www.cornbread.jp, which is all in Japanese except for the word “cornbread”, uses historical stories, movies and books to advertise the product. The Web site will also include cornbread recipes targeting a Japanese audience. For example, the site’s recipes use conventional milk or plain yogurt as a substitute for buttermilk, an essential ingredient for baking southern-style cornbread but a product not available in Japan. The site is expected to grow as more information, recipes and links are added.
Posted By Cindy April 2, 2008
While the oil industry has been quick to blame corn ethanol and grain prices for high food costs, they fail to recognize the profits of their own companies are the bigger culprit of high food costs, according to the Nebraska Corn Board.
“Farmers have been taking it on the chin while oil companies are raking in record profits,” said Don Hutchens, executive director of the Nebraska Corn Board.
Exxon alone had profits of $40.7 billion last year, while the five leading oil companies had a combined profit of $123 billion. Ironically, the entire U.S. corn crop for 2006-07 had a gross value of $32 billion, and only 20% of that crop was used to produce ethanol.
“When you compare the profit of one oil company last year to the total gross value of an entire year’s U.S. corn crop, you can quickly understand why Congress is asking oil company executives to explain why their profits are hitting record levels while the American consumer pays for those profits at the pump and supermarket,” said Hutchens. “The oil companies are also fighting to keep $18 billion in tax breaks over the next decade.”
Hutchens said they were interested in hear what the oil companies had to say about renewable energy during a Congressional hearing held on Tuesday. “Our perspective is that they have not shown much support and have in fact tried to shift the blame of subsidies and high food costs to the American farmer,” Hutchens said. “In reality, the American farmer has worked hard for the last 30 years to show the benefits of a renewable energy source like ethanol.”
Posted By Cindy April 1, 2008
Corn will be playing in the major leagues with the boys of summer this year.
Some of the nation’s major league baseball teams are adopting cups made from corn starch this season to help quench the thirst of fans and be more environmentally-friendly at the same time.
The Pittsburgh Pirates, for example, have announced a new greening initiatives program called “Let’s Go Bucs. Let’s Go Green.”
Beginning with the 2008 season, the concessionaires at PNC Park will be using corn-based beverage cups. They are also reportedly printing game-day programs with soy-based inks and providing flex-fuel vehicles for team scouts.
According to Bob Nutting, Pirates Chairman of the Board, “We are not launching this program because ‘going green’ is a popular trend. We are doing it because it is the right thing to do. The measures being put into place at the ballpark will have an immediate positive impact. These initiatives not only make sense for the environment, but they make good business sense as well.”
The Oakland A’s are also reportedly using cups made of biodegradable cornstarch this season.
Posted By Cindy March 31, 2008
Corn could hit $13 a bushel under a possible scenario outlined today by a market analyst during a teleconference for the Minneapolis Grain Exchange.
According to Joe Victor, Vice President/Marketing for Allendale, Inc., their current projection for the season average farm price this year is $6 per bushel for corn, compared to the 2007-2008 average of $4 per bushel – assuming excellent weather and average yield of 155.
“If we get into a weather situation, more of a wet weather scenario preventing us from planting, we could end up seeing a trend yield of 131 bushels per acre, which suggests a season average farm price of $13 a bushel.”
Victor says that based on the new acreage estimate of 86 million acres for corn, they project end stocks of 482 million bushels for 2009.
“Going from this present marketing year of 1.43 billion bushels, shaving near a billion bushels off that estimate. That’s going to keep people on the edge as far as, are we going to have enough corn? Not only corn for feed use, but the other monster that’s out there is ethanol,” Victor said.
However, the National Corn Growers Association points out that the acreage intention is still the second highest since 1949. “We’re always cautious when we review the March projections, because they are made before any seeds really enter the ground,” said Ron Litterer, NCGA president. “The corn acreage projections also have a tendency to go up. Last year, for example, there was a difference of more than 3 million acres between the March estimate and the final number.” Litterer pointed out USDA’s March report has underestimated actual corn acres in the each of the last four years.
Posted By Cindy March 31, 2008
USDA’s highly anticipated prospective plantings report is predicting that farmers will plant eight percent less corn and 18 percent more soybeans. Growers intend to plant 86.0 million acres of corn and 74.8 million acres of soybeans in 2008.
Expected acreage is down from last year in most states as favorable prices for other crops, high input costs for corn, and crop rotation considerations are motivating some farmers to plant fewer acres to corn.
Despite the decrease, the report says, “corn acreage is expected to remain at historically high levels as the corn price outlook remains strong due in part to the continued expansion in ethanol production.”
For soybeans, according to the report, acreage increases are expected in every state, except in West Virginia, which is unchanged from last year.
The largest increases are expected in Iowa and Nebraska, up 1.25 million acres and 1.20 million acres from 2007, respectively. Increases of at least 800,000 acres are also expected in Indiana, Minnesota, and South Dakota. If realized, the planted acreage in Kansas, New York, and Pennsylvania will be the largest on record.
Posted By Cindy February 25, 2008
Biofuels were in the spotlight last week at USDA’s 2008 Outlook Forum with the theme “Energizing Rural America in the Global Marketplace.”
The opening plenary session included Paul Schickler of DuPont/Pioneer Hi-Bred and Bob Dinneen with the Renewable Fuels Association, who made up half the panel talking about biofuels and new technology increasing yields to meet the demand for both food and fuel.
“The rapid advances in productivity, technology and innovation are contributing to remarkable productivity increases,” said Schickler. “World production of corn (since 1991) has progressed right along with the rapid increase in consumption and the reason is that corn yields have increased over that same period by 30 percent.”
Schickler noted that in the last decade the world population has increased 13 percent, income has increased 35 percent, meat consumption has increased 25 percent, corn consumption is up 32 percent and soybean consumption is up 52 percent … but total global crop area harvested has only increased by four percent.
He called it “remarkable” and it truly is. Here is a link to Schickler’s presentation in pdf form.
Dinneen said we need to make sure we are doing everything possible with biotechnology to develop new varieties to increase crop production. “We are going to get to 200 bushels per acre far sooner than anyone believes that we will,” he said.
“We will not have food security in this country unless and until we have energy security,” said Dinneen.
Watch the entire plenary panel session on USDA’s website.
There was also a panel focusing specifically on sustainability of ethanol with presenters including Dr. Mark Stowers of POET and Rick Tolman of National Corn Growers Association. (The links will take you to their presentations.)
Posted By Cindy February 19, 2008
As Ken commented on the previous Shannon Brown post – if you miss her at the National Ethanol Conference, you can see her in Nashville at the Commodity Classic.
“Corn Fed” Shannon will join John Conlee, Joe Diffie, Carolina Rain and The Steeldrivers for an exclusive show at the Grand Ole Opry during the Evening of Entertainment wrapping up the 2008 Commodity Classic convention March 1 in Nashville, Tenn.
“This is a great lineup of talent for our private Evening of Entertainment,” said Commodity Classic co-chair and ASA Vice President Randy Mann.
Commodity Classic is the combined convention and trade show of the American Soybean Association, the National Corn Growers Association, and the National Association of Wheat Growers. It will be held Feb. 28-March 1 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort across from the Grand Ole Opry.
