The Great Midwestern Gold Rush

A Growing Thirst For Ethanol Is Driving Corn Prices To Record Levels

(CBS)  It's being called the golden age of agriculture. This planting season, corn farmers like Garry Niemeyer of central Illinois are looking at a field of dreams — and dollar signs.

CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers reports that while flying over the state, it looks like black gold from the air.

"Considering the price of farmland and the price of corn at $4, I think you said it right, absolutely perfect," Niemeyer said.

That's because at $4 per bushel — nearly double last year's price — this crop could be part of the richest corn harvest in our nation's history. It's a gold rush everyone wants to get in on.

It's estimated that U.S. farmers this year will plant 90 million acres of corn. That's more land than in 46 of the 50 states.

Prices are high because demand is high — and that's because corn is the key ingredient in ethanol. Twenty-five percent of this year's corn harvest is going to ethanol producers, up from seven percent in 2001.

That means there's less corn for animal feed, which is driving up the cost of raising farm animals — and those costs will be passed on to food shoppers.

Compared to a year ago, eggs are up 23 percent, chicken prices by as much as 27 percent. Experts say over the long haul, pork and beef prices could also be on the rise.

Two hundred miles south of Chicago, Niemeyer believes corn prices still haven't peaked. But he's not betting the farm just yet.

"It's taken on a life of its own, and I hope it's not a bubble," Niemeyer said. "I wouldn't expect it to be to be this good more than two or three years."

After 37 years in the field, he knows there are always going to be highs — and lows.

[rf35]

"After 37 years in the field, he knows there are always going to be highs %u2014 and lows".

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! 37 years in the field, eh?

Anyhow cfin5, 47 million fewer energy/food consumers sounds pretty good in my book. We need to reduce the population of America if we ever hope to be self-sufficient in anything. And we need to reduce the population
of the world if the species is to survive. But I guess you want more consumers buying whatever it is you produce. What difference does it make if your kids/grandkids inherit a dying world. As long as you can drive your oversized, overpowered pick-up to work and "the little lady" can haul your 10 kids to soccer practice in the station wagon, your happy, right? The real impact won't be felt until after you're dead anyway, right? So who cares? I supose you figure if you just pray to your god hard enough everything will be OK in the end.

Ethanol and/or biodeisel are not the answers, just band-aids at best. It's only trading one form of environmental destruction for another. The sooner America wakes up to the fact that the internal combustion engine is no longer a viable power source, the sooner we will truely be food- and energy-independent. It would help if people would have a maximum of 2 children. At least then the population would have a chance to stabilize instead of growing unchecked.

[talkingham]

It's a golden age because of the high tariffs on sugar import and the absurd subidies the government doles out to the giant agriculture "corporations" such as Archer Dananiels Midland - which is the biggest non-military recipient of government tax dollars in history according to some sources. In 2005 alone the corn farmers received more than 22-billion dollars according to:
http://www.accidentalhedonist.com/index.php/2006/01/24/tariffs_and_subsidies_the_literal_cost_o

This is so the food and drink producers can load your kids full of heart killing high frutose corn syrup and have your tax dollars pay for it.

So stop all this stupid nazi chatter and look at the shadow government of big money runnign everything as usual.

Enjoy your corn syrup everyone. You're paying for it in multiple ways, your tax dollars, tyhe products you buy and your health.

[cfin5]

Brainworms1: Point taken. Fascist in any form is a "button" of mine. What we also have here is a fuel economy problem. My brother while still overseas bought an Audi (diesel) that gets 60 mpg. without even trying. I'm sure the government does not want their oil tax income cut in half. A much higher MPG vehicle is what I think will pop the "price of corn bubble". You farmers be careful out there. PAY for your equipment as soon as you can do it. Remember "FARM AID" or you might be surprised who owns your farm some day!

[brainworms1]

cfin5: Since everyone's picking on you I'm gonna jump back in here on your side. I have had deep callouses and worked my butt off felling trees and driving heavy equipment in the logging industry. I know what hard work is. And I don't support a huge government that takes your wages away and doles it out to the lazy. That's the problem with any form of big gov. It wastes your tax dollars.

Also, American Nazis are petty racists. On the other hand Neocon fascists are not racist but answer only to corporate interests, treating citizins as mere commodoties--expendable consumer/producers to be exploited. They hate unions and would love to cut your wages to increas their profits since only profit matters to them.

So if you truly are a working stiff, you're cutting your own throat if you back those guys. Ethanol is just a big scam, subsidized to the tune of 55 cents/gallon with your hard earned tax dollars. It takes more energy to produce than it returns. If all US famland was used to produce biofuels it would only provide 20% of our energy needs. Meanwhile, your food and fuel bills will only go up to line their pockets. That's their plan, man. Don't support them.

[cfin5]

If you dont want the rhetoric sir, then dont imply that I am some kind of God ordained
international thief for my "me first" sin of being the breadwinner in my house. After all, what system is it that usually implies such a statement to an american? I'm not uneducated enough to who it was that earned the money I use to pay the bills,duh! You should work on that reading comprehension problem. Kuz Thayot shor aint ejukashun lak fer fellers wif bigole thaynkin apparatuseses lak yorn!

[rudy654-2009]

"Your guilt trip angle does nothing to me but sharpen my perception of your socialist pining for my hard earned wages."

Spare me the rhetoric. Sir, everytime I go to the gas pump I know who's pining for my hard earned wages, and it "aint" no socialist, duh!! So don't cry to me about your hard earned wages if you "aint" figured that out yet. I just barely get a wage increased and gas goes up a dollar a gallon the next. I know who's pining alright! Got it "partner"?

"Why, even some so called preachers on TV are better at covetousness than you and the professor. One uses GOD, the other, the authority that GOD gave them to soak the poor. Bottom line is, "whats the diff"?"

I wish I knew what you alls talkin about, "partner." It seems there is something to the stereotype of the rich but rather uneducated American.

[gordon.couger]

I am a landlord that shares in the income from my farms. My pocketbook likes the Food for Fuel deal real well.

I don't think anyone that doesn't have a direct tie to farm income or income from the the sale of grain or some part of the process is going to like this very well at all.

While the money will probably be good the ethics of trading food for fuel aren't. In as world that has gone from 400 day carry over of grain in the 60's or 70's to 70 days last year before harvest started we have to find a way to feed twice as many people in the next 50 years. There are not only going to be more people but if the last 50 years are the pattern we follow they will be eating better too.

In India and China[40% of the world's population] has increased the amount of meat they eat by 6% to 10% ever year for the last 10 years. Every pound of meat take 3 to 10 pounds of grain to make. In the last two years both countries have started to import grain again after being self sufficient for 10 or 15 years. Add to that a hungry biofuel homonym and the price of food goes up.

I don't think it takes a PhD in economics to figure this out.

Gordon

[cfin5]

Rudy654:Say what you will partner. I told nor implide any lies. Your guilt trip angle does nothing to me but sharpen my perception of your socialist pining for my hard earned wages. Most americans are not thirsty for your historical political mirage anyway. Why, even some so called preachers on TV are better at covetousness than you and the professor. One uses GOD, the other, the authority that GOD gave them to soak the poor. Bottom line is, "whats the diff"?

[rudy654-2009]

"I'm blue collar with mud on it there Winthrow and very unconfused about the ownership of what I have earned with my blood,sweat, and worried filled tears for my family who totally depend on me. You need to gets some blister-pocked, callus filled hands to help that fantasy view of the world before scribbling down any more of your socialist lectures to me professor."

Since I have worked in fields and orchards, you'll excuse me if I say that you don't sound like someone who knows what it's like to scrape by on minimum wage, no benefit jobs. You sound more like someone who believes that if others are having a hard time of it, tough luck. So, if people starve around the world, God must want it to be so, because he's just blessed you with all of their wealth. Your "me first" attitude gives you away. Rest assured, it will come back to bite you.

[cfin5]

Brainworm1: Being an american constitutionalist that I am is not congruent with being a nazi there professor. There is nothing worse in this country than an "american nazi". An american communist aint much better. Communist social policies under the title "SECULAR HUMANISM" have wormed their way into our country over the years and the result has been the MURDER of 47 million little babies since 1973. Are you an advocate to this barbarism "MR. SAVE THE POOR AT MY EXPENSE"?..... And yes I appreciate and will honor my american birthright with my conduct as an american citizen...... No, I'm not rich,famous, or an exploiter of the working class. I'm blue collar with mud on it there Winthrow and very unconfused about the ownership of what I have earned with my blood,sweat, and worried filled tears for my family who totally depend on me. You need to gets some blister-pocked, callus filled hands to help that fantasy view of the world before scribbling down any more of your socialist lectures to me professor. And one more thing, would not those little children have grown up to be 47 million "AMERICAN UNION PRODUCT PURCHASING CUSTOMERS"??? I'm sure that our blue collar boys would have stayed very busy for the last 34 years if that dark history was not so!

[brainworms1]

realevergree: The cost of gasoline doesn't reflect the cost of sucking it out of the ground either. It's the supply/demand thingy. $3.00 gas is mostly all profit. Twenty-five cents worth of corn is nothing to us because we make more than $2/ten-hour day. They say that a minimum wage Mexican with a family of four is spending 40% of his income on torillas! And that's without a box.

and cfin5: Since you're labeling me, you must be some Neocon Neofascist who thinks that freedom is a license to exploit anyone and everything so that you can live in greedy, luxurious decadence far beyond actual need. Not only that, you think its some sort of birthright because you're willing to pander for it. And you don't even recognize it as moral corruption!?! Aristocratic Rome doled bread to the masses in an attempt to forestall the inevitable collapse they themselves brought on by the inequity they created. It's a cycle that repeats itself over and over from Eqypt to the Myans, to the Aztecs (exploited tribes joined Cortez to conquer Tenochtitlan) and every "great" civilization that ever existed. We're at that cusp again. Fueling personal tranport vehicles at the expense hungry masses of people will surely signal the beginning of the end of this cycle. Of course, we could just kill them all, and maybe that's OK with you.

[realevergree]

The retail cost of food doesn't have much bearing on farm commodity prices. Twenty five cents worth of corn goes a long ways in a box of corn flakes. The cardboard box still costs a lot more.

[drinuk]

The major oil companies have been buying up farmland in Europe for years, knowing full well that corn, oil seed rape and sugar beet will become popular as a alternative fuel. They care little that there will be almost no land left to grow food crops or that the cost of food produce will hit the roof. In partnership with Big Pharma and the Monsanto's of this world, the Oil Barons will reap in the cash at our expense AND you can put your shirt on the fact that our politicians of all parties have their dirty hands in the cash register too, devious crooked B A S T A R D S.

[cfin5]

Brainworms1. You have got to be one of those bleeding heart liberals who can always find a way to save the poor with money that IS NOT YOURS! Talking to you guys with historical evidence of incorrect social policies is like preaching to a cricket. Did not Rome fall morally, then economically (FREE BREAD FOR THE MASSES) before their enemies finally conquered them? My opinions are for the benefit to the country my citizenship resides in. A good citizen governs himself willingly to his countries delight. I have nor desire to intrude in another countries affairs unlike most of our politicians today. Since you are an advocate for socialism, empty your own wallet for the poor and hit the road across our border.

[sharncedar]

Food prices are already up in the United States, just got back from grocery shopping. For the first time in several years I had to limit my purchases of meat to less than I need to eat because of the expense. That's corn-fed meat.

It looks like the legacy of Bush is a country with huge McMansions full of starving people. So much agricultural land has been lost to the "housing bubble" created by Bush and Greenspan, now he is taking away corn from the food chain. Perhaps Bush is the biggest fool in history, he is of biblical proportions, he is like a great figure of foolishness in history. He is truly biblical, I guess that is what he wanted, he is plague of purest ignorance, every decision he makes is dead wrong, every plan he has is a failure. It's kind of amazing, even an idiot should be right now and then.

Oh well, can't type too much, getting hungry.

[brainworms1]

cfin5: I don't think a "let them drink ethanol" attitude will solve the problem. We are all born hungry into a world we didn't create. Some of us got lucky and landed inside the empire. Had I been born 12 miles further south I'd have been born in Tijuana. Such is life.

Elite imperial China built a wall around itself to protect it's civilization from barbarians. Soon after barbarians sat on the throne. The Goths sacked Rome. That is the historical pattern. The hungry will always overcome the soft, fat and indigent. The AK47 might be the guillotine of the 21st century.

[cfin5]

Brainworms. Your such a genius. Danged if we do, danged if we dont. Who cares what what the forgein "perpetual loan defaulters" think anyway. All I ever see them doing in the news is jumping up and down with their AK-47's for the last 20 years. You would think that a tractor would be more important than a rifle if it was that bad. Most of their problems are religously self-inflicted and it's not going to matter one bit if they like us or not. This is a historical fact is it not?

[brainworms1]

It seems to me that as the price of corn goes up the number of farmers planting other, less profitable food crops will decline reducing production of soy, wheat, barley etc. In other words American farms will now focus on feeding SUVs instead of people.

The immorality of this posture aside, much of our surplus grains find their way to India, China, Africa, Central and South America where workers often make as little as twelve cents per hour. Hungry people are unhappy people. Starving people refuse to cooperate, stop playing the wage/slavery game and take up arms. You think Americans are hated worldwide now and that we have an immigration problem now? Think we have world unrest today? Ya think Americans will still be taking cruises to Aurba in 20 years? One horseman of the apocolypse is mounting his steed.

[cfin5]

Finally some good news for a change! But dont stop there. We should also cut any red tape that would hinder us from being self sufficiant in our energy needs. I dont see this issue as partisan, but rather an economic national security policy in our favor

[gkc99]

Anything to get the Republiscums out of their Road Hippos!