By *SCOTT KILMAN*
September 28, 2007; Page A1, Wall Street Journal
Rising prices and surging demand for the crops that supply half of the
world’s calories are producing the biggest changes in global food
markets in 30 years, altering the economic landscape for everyone from
consumers and farmers to corporate giants and the world’s poor.
“The days of cheap grain are gone,” says Dan Basse, president of
AgResource Co., a Chicago commodity forecasting concern.
This year the prices of Illinois corn and soybeans are up 40% and 75%,
respectively, from a year ago. Kansas wheat is up 70% or more. And a
growing number of economists and agribusiness executives think the
run-ups could last as long as a decade, raising the cost of all kinds of
food.
In the past, such increases have been caused by temporary supply
disruptions. Following a poor harvest, farmers would rush to capitalize
on higher crop prices by planting more of that crop the next season,
sending prices back down. But the current rally, which started a year
ago in the corn-futures trading pit at the Chicago Board of Trade, is
different.
What’s changed is that powerful new sources of demand are emerging. In
addition to U.S. government incentives that encourage businesses to turn
corn and soybeans into motor fuel has affected the supply of corn and soybeans for animal feed, and the growing economies of Asia and Latin America are enabling hundreds of millions of people to spend more on food, especially meat and milk.
1) How does the U.S government incentives to turn corn and soybeans into motor fuel affect the price of beef? Explain
2) How do the growing economies of Asia and Latin America affect the price of corn and soybeans? Explain
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
2) increased demand for food - increased price
1) increased demand for corn - increased price - increased cost of input into beef production - increased cost of beef - increased price of beef
When farmers turn from making corn and soybeans for food, into growing them for fuel, the supply of corn and soybeans decreases to the food market, yet the supply stays the same. Remember in Latin America, tortillas are a staple, especially in Mexico, and charging more for corn there would take away something that is needed in their everyday life, for there would be less corn for making tortillas.
As in other regions “conquered” by communist propaganda and covert military action, the USA is experiencing a covert destruction of it’s economy.
America, as a people would almost to a man tell you that they would prefer not to give away the nation to south central American Narcho-terrorists.
But as they apparently are in league with those manufacturing countries who are “kicking our a$$” in terms of civil laws allowing the citizens of such respective nations and our own the freedom to actually patent, trademark or copywrite ~ and thus what was once “our” 75% of economies worldwide is now their near 100% we are both swamped with “offers” from countries with patent laws, etc., not controlled from “family court” for the crime of having been out spied ~ what with Dear Ronny Reagan having been so mad as a hatter to permit the possession of d ate r ape d rugs ~ for horse owners…how can a “good conserfative” “hang em all and LET GOD Decide” “judge” resist not knocking down all of us that would compete with them? A few dollars to the d opers and we are 45 trillion in private debt + about 10 trillion in public debt.
And the most it cost them was 5.11 trillion to get us there even if they bought and involuntarily gave each of us all the dope we could almost cope with.
They even control our nations politics to the extent that they dictate to us what we will in fact eat of thiers and what we will be forced by “proper t(ea) taxes” to grow here. (sorry I could not resist the pun).
For all intent and purposes US government “intervention” in fuel production is silly small, a talking point for political pundits.
Asia and Latin America really don’t have economies ~ both regions are for all intentions and purposes chock full of feudal dictatorships. (A notable exception being Japan, and it’s only a bit fuedal ~ they usually don’y kill you unless you are impolite…but of course in terms of economy ~ all feudal.)
You are in fact being “taught” silly things, economic theories that cannot apply in these times of the trillion $ “bail out”.
How can we be said to live for instance in a free market when no liberal is presumed to earn enough? I is up to a family court judge to determine anyone’s “capacity to earn” should thatv person fall victim to mob d ate r ape d rugging. But the determinor of his “status”, of daddy with no civil rights such as right to contribute in any free market except as slave ~ or fully privalidged citizen of the new sunlit uplands, is if he earns as much as the conserfatives say he might have earned if, IF ONLY, IF ONLY HE HAD BEEN A CONSERFATIVE, and not thus let his family down by being a stinking low life Liberal…
In other words if consefatives judge as they do, mocking Liberal case law that used to protect a child in a case of incest.
Yes, that is what the Conserfative idea of a great joke is. They lie about motive ~ steal markets and lie about why their competition is judged unfit to hold a competing patent, or sue for age descrimination, etc… We hear the feudal lies and seeing they wear black are so impressed we fawn and say: “Bad daddy”.
And burry our heads in 1Adam12 reruns, pretending Miranda Laws, Heabius Corpus and etc. still exist.
So, as the ‘economies’ are propaganda fronts for black hearted feudalists, they effect the price of “OUR” corn and soybean crops by causing us to have a substancial soy and corn crop at the expence of any ability to feed ourselves. In other words the “price” or cost is a likely loss of the present narcho-terrorist or outright comming invasive war, and inilation. (your question 2)
Your question 1): though we could grow healthy beef, we grow sick beef. So the real cost there is a sick populace, underable to defend ourselves.