primitives terrified by corn supply-and-demand

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021071522

Oh my.

FarCenter (10,813 posts)

Terrifying Corn Supply/Demand Situation Unfolding

The depressing yield situation Gulke is seeing in his fields, is common across the country. So common, that Informa Economics drastically chopped their corn yield estimate on Friday. Its corn yield projection is now 120.7 bu./acre. However, the firm's is expecting a final national average yield of 131 bu./acre.

...

On Friday, Aug. 10, USDA will release its first survey-based estimates for corn and soybeans. Currently USDA’s national corn yield average is currently 146 bu./acre. If they drop it down to the mid-120s like Informa, Gulke says we have a demand nightmare on our hands.

He says reducing feed needs, ethanol use and exports down to make Informa’s 120 estimate pencil out looks like an almost impossible job.

Gulke says on a recent CNBC segment, it was reported it takes 3 lbs. of corn to put a 1 lb. of gain on a hog, 5 lbs. of corn to put 1 lb. on a cow and about five times as much to make a gallon of ethanol. "There’s going to be a real push out there to do something about ethanol."

The general public, Gulke believes, is not going to want to see meat and food prices increase, at the expense of ethanol.

http://www.agweb.com/article/terrifying_corn_supplydemand_situation_unfolding/

veganlush (1,543 posts)

2. funny, we feed all that fiber to animals,

In the case of pigs we torture and kill them in factory farms....hmmmm, what to do.... how about boycotting cruelty, eat vegetables

NoMoreWarNow (165 posts)

4. eating less meat would definitely help a lot of issues though much of the corn we grow is not good for human consumption, from what I understand.

CrispyQ (13,995 posts)

16. You are right.

Most of the corn grown in the US goes to feed animals & to the HFCS industry. Watch the documentary "King Corn." There was a scene of a farmer in a field of corn & he said, "All this corn & it's not fit for eating." It's really a great movie!

This movie is a few years old, so I don't know how much is now grown for ethanol.

chervilant (3,412 posts)

20. Food, Inc. is another essential documentary.

BTW, I have gone Vegan, for health reasons. The carnivores in my circle of friends are really torqued by my decision.

Zalatix (6,465 posts)

17. Then where will people get their protein? Beans?

caseymoz (3,997 posts)

22. Vegetarianism will make farm animals extinct.

Just saying. The only reason why those animals have a niche and are doing so much better than most wild animals is that we raise them for food.

CrispyQ (13,995 posts)

32. "those animals have a niche and are doing so much better than most wild animals"

I assume by 'doing so much better than' you are referring simply to their numbers, not their quality of life. The life of a factory farm animal is one of the most cruel & inhumane on this planet. The conditions we perpetrate on layer hens is particularly heinous.

caseymoz (3,997 posts)

36. Yes, I'm referring only to their numbers.

Extinction's irreversible. You can alleviate or stop suffering, but once a species is gone, it's forever.

And if you ask me, the whole natural, ultimate purpose of pain, as far as the animal feeling it is concerned, is to prompt it to avoid death if it can.

Farm animals cannot be introduced into the wild. They make poor pets. Nobody's going to raise them except for food and money. If human's stop eating meat, their habitat is gone. So far we've been poor at rescuing and maintaining endangered species.

I don't like the treatment of food animals either. However, the basic problem is human overpopulation. We could improve their conditions, but the fact we have to feed so many human beings, which then just grows our population, makes the lives of other animals miserable or impossible.

I have another thought: that is farm animals might just evolve and adapt to the conditions we've put them in, perhaps becoming extremophiles. However, that's at least a thousand years in the future, too far to be a considered in their treatment today. Besides, I think our food production system will collapse long before that.

RebelOne (24,159 posts)

38. Well, that's good as I am a vegetarian, and I would like to see many farm animals saved and not used for food.

FedUpWithIt All (4,056 posts)

39. We have screwed up the cycle.

To grow enough vegetables, to support human life on this planet, takes a lot of input. This input is a return, to the soil, of nutrients and fertilizers.

The most natural system replaces these things through the waste of the creatures who consume the plant life. To do away with the natural system you have to create a synthetic system. This requires MASSIVE amounts of dangerous and destructive chemicals, many of which are petroleum based.

The largely abandoned model, of natural grass fed livestock's (grass being a plant source easily grown on marginal land and unsuitable for human consumption) waste returned to agricultural land as a fertilizer, is the most responsible method of food production. The animals are treated ethically and allowed to behave in a natural manner, the cycle of nutrients is preserved and there is little, non sustainable, energy lost.

pnwest (254 posts)

8. Ya think "terrifying" might be a little strong, here?

Alarmist much?

Zalatix (6,465 posts)

18. Yeah, say that 6 months from now when you look at your grocery bill.

Or if you live in Mexico, or another third world nation which will be drastically hit by this.

Terrifying? Right on the mark for them.

wilsonbooks (96 posts)

9. The article calls for problems with a 120 bushels per acre corn crop.

Most of the Missouri corn crop is completely gone. Millions of acres of burnt up crops. I expect the situation is almost as bad in the rest of the corn belt. Look for meat prices to skyrocket.

Thor_MN (4,069 posts)

24. The corn they are talking about is NOT sweet corn.

It is grass, but it may as well be wood. The whole why do we turn food into ethanol argument is bunk. Field corn is not food. It can be processed into corn oil, it can be processed into HFCS (which would be even more evil according to some who alaways need something to rant against). There are thousands of products that can be made from corn. Livestock will eat it, but they will happily eat grass.

Granted, the land used for field corn could be used for food, but reality is that the economics favor field corn. If we want more food to be grown, we will need to change the laws that make corn more profitable. It is by nature relatively easy to harvest and separate from the chaff, but the big agra companies have compounded that via lobbying to get subsidies that make it the logical crop. Until there is equal or more profit in something else no amount of wailing and handwringing is going change "Why do we turn food into ethanol?".

sybylla (7,156 posts)

28. You're forgetting anything made with corn flour is made with field corn.

Cereals, tortillas, corn bread, and more, are made primarily with corn flour, not to mention all the processed foods that have corn flour as a secondary ingredient. There's more of it in our food supply than you think. Which will mean higher prices across our food supply next year.

allan01 (228 posts)

19. re:Terrifying Corn Supply/Demand

ethonal has nothing to do with the increase of corn. it is the cost of the transportation. ie deisel fuel going up and up and up . we know who all controls that now dont we.

safeinOhio (6,842 posts)

23. I do what I have to do.

I already eat less beef. When gas went up, I drove less, so I'm spending about the same as before. It sucks, but is doable. Now, I'll eat more fish and game that I'll catch and kill. Taste better.

Lower demand will bring lower prices.

HopeHoops (36,783 posts)

25. Curiously, sweet corn is doing extremely well. Feed corn is not. Go figure.

It's usually the opposite in weather like this.

sybylla (7,156 posts)

29. That probably has to do with the timing of the drought.

Sweet corn typically has a shorter season, so it was better developed and better able to handle the lack of water than field corn.

fredamae (807 posts)

26. At least part of the solution is Drought Resistant Industrial Hemp! Jobs, Fuel, Fiber and Much more

drokhole (907 posts)

30. Industrial Hemp!!! Can't be emphasized enough...

Would be great for us, but not good for Big Agra / the corn lobby. From what I understand, it requires fewer chemicals, less water and less processing than corn, as well.

Also, cows/herbivores should not be eating corn in the first place. It's completely unnatural to their diet, causing all kinds of health problems (which require the over-use of antibiotics), while decimating the nutritional content/density/profile of beef.

[Bad Dog]

One would hope that all DUmmies would go vegan as soon as possible to save the planet.  Not to mention saving me a bunch on my grocery bill for meats.

[JohnnyReb]

Just did the last of my sweet corn last night....about 200 ears of corn on the cob.
....and I got corn leftover from last year. This morning I planted 6-week brown eyed peas where the corn was. Never had those before so we'll see how they do. Picked 5 gallons of crowder peas and purple hull peas mixed and almost 5 gallons of speckled butter beans this morning....I'm good. Still got more speckled beans and the ford hook beans to pick yet. Last week I planted some squash, late tomatoes and more crowder peas. I think I'll pick over the green Lima's one more time and plow them under and plant some greens in there place....or collards maybe.

I may get tired of peas but I won't go hungry for awhile if the 'O'conomy gets better... or is that badder....oh well hell, he doesn't know either.
 

[Mike220]

chervilant (3,412 posts)

20. Food, Inc. is another essential documentary.

BTW, I have gone Vegan, for health reasons. The carnivores in my circle of friends are really torqued by my decision.

More than likely they're pissed at you calling them murders, flesh eaters and carnivores. I've never met a vegan who couldn't get on their self righteous high horse when someone ordered a burger. Leave me the **** alone and let me eat what I want.

[JohnnyReb]

My bell peppers looked better than that.....but that's a great work of art anyway.

[Skul]

fredamae (807 posts)

26. At least part of the solution is Drought Resistant Industrial Hemp! Jobs, Fuel, Fiber and Much more

Riiiight on, DUde.

Edit to add...

D23MIURG23 (1,915 posts)
46. We should not be making ethanol from corn in the first place.
If we are going the biofuel route, switchgrass has a more favorable energetic yield per joule invested.

If so, farmers would be planting the crap out of it.

[MrsSmith]

Thor_MN (4,069 posts)

24. The corn they are talking about is NOT sweet corn.

It is grass, but it may as well be wood. The whole why do we turn food into ethanol argument is bunk. Field corn is not food. It can be processed into corn oil, it can be processed into HFCS (which would be even more evil according to some who alaways need something to rant against). There are thousands of products that can be made from corn. Livestock will eat it, but they will happily eat grass.

Yeah, they will eat grass...which also doesn't grow when there is no rain.     Not to mention they need a lot less corn than grass to survive.   

[Bad Dog]

Yeah, they will eat grass...which also doesn't grow when there is no rain.     Not to mention they need a lot less corn than grass to survive.   

And corn fed beef tastes great.

[JohnnyReb]

And corn fed beef tastes great.

...and according to Obama, $100 a pound beer feed pampered beef is even better.

[miskie]

No, primitives are terrified of yet another item adding pressure against The One's reelection chances. - Most of them could give a rat's ass about large corporate agribusiness, and on any other day, they would be protesting giant fields of corn used to make HFCS, or extending America's dependence on the internal combustion engine via ethanol.

[thundley4]

Yeah, they will eat grass...which also doesn't grow when there is no rain.     Not to mention they need a lot less corn than grass to survive.   

Most vegetables don't grow during a drought.  My guess is that meat eaters would out last the vegetarians.

RebelOne (24,159 posts)

38. Well, that's good as I am a vegetarian, and I would like to see many farm animals saved and not used for food.

I guess you eat algae since Obama thinks it can replace corn for fuel. 

[Lacarnut]

From what I have read, 30% of the corn crop is used to make Ethanol. Quit making it. I don't like that crap in my car anyway. That solves the shortage problem, and fewer people in 3rd world countries will starve. Even Al Gore stated Ethanol was a very bad idea. 

[vesta111]

drokhole (907 posts)

30. Industrial Hemp!!! Can't be emphasized enough...

Would be great for us, but not good for Big Agra / the corn lobby. From what I understand, it requires fewer chemicals, less water and less processing than corn, as well.

Also, cows/herbivores should not be eating corn in the first place. It's completely unnatural to their diet, causing all kinds of health problems (which require the over-use of antibiotics), while decimating the nutritional content/density/profile of beef.

---------------------------------------------------------------

True Hemp is one of the plants that improve the land and is hard to kill in a drought.

As there is little to none THC in hemp, the only reason it is not grown is the big company's that find it a competetor to cotton and plastics and mixed chemical cloth for garments.  No one really smokes a rope to get high.  Those that do smoke a rope today get high off the chemicals .

The world was founded for trading by hemp rope for boats.   Occasionally we find in old boat houses a coil of hemp rope that is 50-75 years old still in perfect condition.  Sometimes we find a hemp shirt in the attic that has been there for a very long time, still in brand new condition.

George Washington grew Hemp as did the first 200 years of farmers that needed to renew bad planting grown.

Looking at the devastating pictures of what the drought has caused so far, the farmers that have lost crops and face bad land, Damn, plow the land and plant Hemp.   In 2-3 years the land will be ready to plant crops.  Mean while sell the hemp crop to those that can process it with little problem, perhaps some water, no chemicals and turn it into cloth.  

In another forum I spoke about getting very old curtains from my Mom.   Embroidered and soft as Doe skin.  I think the material is Hemp, these curtains came from an estate sale in 1950 and were very old then.  Has to be hemp, no other material can be stored away since 1950  for 60 years and come out as new with no damage.

This could be why the Chemical company's, Cotten industry  are so against legalising Pot.   Some how hemp got placed in the category of drugs,  Stupid as tomatoes come from the same family-------or so I was told.