Y2KYoto: I’ll Miss The Corn Belt

17 Replies to “Y2KYoto: I’ll Miss The Corn Belt”

1. I recall the greens being outraged by Brasil harvesting forest when 1st world countries wanted tropical wood products.
   Lucky for those wood harvesters that China wanted soybeans grown for their domestic market, and now again that they’re burning food for eco diesel or ethanol. You can do whatever you want so long as the right racial or political group favors you.
   Burning food. How many billion barrels of crude does the USA have?
   #B.Hussien.burns.food

2. One little ol Keystone pipeline would eliminate the need to burn food. Of course, just like inefficient windmills it’s all politics as to which investor loses his shirt and that fabulous government grant money, without which kickbacks would be more difficult. If it’s totally illogical…….just follow the money.

3. Hmmmmmm . . . Might just be a coincidence but it sure seems like US yields went all Mikey Mann Hockey stick about the same time as the SUV was invented.

4. Thank Norman Borlaug http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug or http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1970/borlaug-bio.html
   So much by so many to so few. With appologies.

5. does Steyer have futures in corn????

6. “And yes, it’s no exaggeration to say that Borlaug did, in fact, save a billion lives.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-macaray/the-man-who-saved-a-billi_b_4099523.html

7. O.K. peek at this graph:
   http://fieldquestions.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/corn-prices-yields.gif
   And peek at this source:
   http://suyts.wordpress.com/2012/08/03/a-look-at-historical-corn-yields-and-prices/
   w t f

8. Supply and demand. Are you seriously thinking that lower food prices, compared to general inflation, feeding billions at prices that allow people to eat, while in addition allowing ME in Canada to get STRAWBERRIES at $2/lb in the dead of winter… is a bad thing? Considering they’re growing more on the same parcel of land!

9. It’s not just corn, it’s EVERY crop you can think of. Almost no exceptions! http://www.geohive.com/charts/ag_crops.aspx
   Amazingly, Indian agricultural experts are teaching Australians how to maximize corn yields!

10. Borlaug was indeed a hero, and yet some environmentalists have contempt for his work; which fact is just one more piece of evidence, if more is needed, that the enviro movement is run by psychopaths, and that large numbers of the rank and file are, too.

11. Seems to me that from about 2005 on price is increasing with yield.
    The demand is ethanol. Despite much higher yields and the illustrated Brazilian supply the price still increases with an estimated 40% going to ethanol, a huge and unreliable demand component which responds to completely different market forces.
    http://www.aboutinflation.com/_/rsrc/1368021702891/corn-vs-inflation/Corn_Inflation_Adjusted_Historical_Chart_April_2013.png
    Borlaug saved millions, perhaps, but his product shortens the lives of millions.

12. yeah food supply is steady or increased globally but food prices soar in the US and Canada. Marketing boards?

13. And if they stopped wasting it on ethenol

14. “Almost eight in 10 biodiesel producers in the United States have cut back production this year due to uncertainty over federal policies that encourage making the fuels, the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) said.
    The report released Wednesday was based on a survey the NBB conducted. In addition to the finding that 78 percent of producers reduced output, 57 percent of companies have idle or shut down plants and 66 percent have reduced their workforces or are considering it.”
    http://hotair.com/archives/2014/05/15/oh-noes-80-percent-of-biofuels-producers-have-cut-back-on-production-due-to-federal-mandate-uncertainty/

15. I guess in Brazil they don’t have to many combines with a 41′ cut.
    http://farmindustrynews.com/combines/worlds-largest-folding-combine-head-geringhoff
    41 foot swath, 21 rows at a whack. And it folds up too.

16. my three hills friend said neighbour renting his land can seed all in a day, when it took him 10 days.
    amazing what one BIG tractor and 70 ft zerotill seeder can do.

17. Back in the day, say mid 1960’s, the Anderson War Crimes Trial….the transcript indicated one of the Georgia farmers near the prison camp bragged about the local yields…he cited 4 bushels of corn per acre.
    100 years later, here in SW Ontario, the goal was to break the 100 bu mark…..now that is considered a crop failure as yields frequently exceed twice that…inf’n ya know wacher doin…..
    The yields took off when chemical companies such as Monsanto and Pfieser took over major seed companys…Pioneer and DeKalb respectively….
    Off course, ya end up with funny lookin kids and dogs and livestock …..Or so the usual suspects claim…