The Ethanol Mandate is Killing the Cattle and Hog Industry – Kevin Grier, George Morris Centre

[jensend]

so if farmers can't afford to supply the poorer nations won't there be an oversupply that lowers prices? if you think richer nations (which have smaller populations) are going to pay high prices while stockpiles build i think you should revisit your reasoning. your biggest market is poor people and you can't get money they don't have. to say that prices will stay high just because you want them to is a desperate hope. if prices rise to unaffordable levels they will also be unsustainable just by logic. if your customer starves to death they generally are out of the market.

[newguy]

I am not saying they get cut off food. Farmers are getting to be a small % of the population and should not be expected to foot the bill alone. This is going to be a problem in the future and all tax payers of the modern countries should expect to help pay to feed the world. Grain is still very cheap in our nation . Does anyone know of any other industry that can sell their product to China and be competitive?

[charliep]

Actually we don't feed the poor of the world. They feed themselves from local
production with the calories and protein they can afford to buy.

North America feeds the growing middle class in the developing world new
with diverse products they can't get locally. We also support their value added
industries such as livestock. Lots of areas of the world buy feedgrains and
protein again to satisfy the demand for better diets with meat.

When I listen to Kevin's clip (George Morris has been consistent on this), the
issue is not ethanol good or bad but rather the level of subsidy paid to this
industry. A weird comment but the livestock industry in the US at least
benefited from a subsidy to corn producers that paid them to over produce
(read cheap prices) and now the shoe is on the other foot (a subsidy to ethanol
that gives it an unfair advantage over livestock).

An interesting slide from a conference I attended is one that shows crop
production and consumption. Both were about 800 million tonnes just 50
years. Today if my memory is right are about 2 billion tonnes. By 2050, this
number will need to be closer to 2.5 billion based on trend.

Remembering the French revolution and the impact on Marie Antoinette,
perhaps the expression of the future will be let them eat beans. Perhaps both
ethanol and meat are unsustainable sources of demand.

[jensend]

maybe you want to take a look at how the concept that n. america is the world's foodbasket came about. hint: it's not for the benefit of farmers.

[hedgehog]

its really just a return to the old days, when it took a third of the farm to graze and feed the working horses that ploughed the land and hauled the corn to market.
my calculator tells me that one third of my place will grow enough ethanol to power my tractors/ truck.
no fuel spare for commuting to work.
when the horses went, we automatically went into surplus and the downward price spiral.
A starving man will happily pay you $100/bu

[newguy]

When the US taxpayer subsidizes ethanol. 100% of the ethanol stays in the US. When they subsidize grain any grain that was exported also exported tax payers dollars . For every action there is a reaction. The livestock industry needs to adjust.

[shaney]

Newguy. How do you suggest a hog farmer adjust to 7.00 corn. I'm sure they are all ears.

[newguy]

Same way grain farmers adjust to $650 fertilizer. They have been feeding top Quality durum. Thank you CWB..

[johnsmith]

Kevin Grier like Al Gore/hacks no value. I trust the cattle/hogs guys will figure it out. Been in the crop game for 30yrs. First 20 or so STABLE. Early 2000's bumper crops worth nothing, the industries that serviced this farm in those 20/25yrs had the attitude of--this is the price take it or leave it STABLE(FU was on the end of my tongue and I didn't know why) People were having a good time living off the back of cheap food, Just take the kids in the US, fat lazy and killing themselves, cheap corn syrup. STABLE. CWB(good bye)STABLE. You can have it. My last 7/8yrs UNSTABLE. Screwed up weather, from no crop to good crop, price are fun to farm now, ethanol using up cheap supplies, China buying everything in sight, throw in some world politics, what do ya got UNSTABLE. The industries that services this farm NOW are bangging on my door with some hunger. UNSTABLE. Not sure. Hungry. Its great!!! We will feed the world because its what we do, but UNSTABLE seems to be better on this farm, so Kevin Grier can take a hike, UNSTABLE, not sure makes people heathly, sharp like the cattle/hog guys they will make it just like the crop guys.

[johnsmith]

How about this headline.
Corn ethanol and its subsidies will be the direct cause of the colapse of the drug trade intustries in Afghanistan and Columbia. High grain prices have cause the crop growers to switch to food instead of opium because of more profit, hmmmm.

[ASRG]

I'm not real sure what is happening in the cattle business on a national scale, but in my area (central Alberta) a lot of cows have disappeared and it is unlikely they are ever coming back? At the local auction barns it is like visiting the old folks home...very few young guys!
Those old men selling out aren't going to get back in no matter how much cattle are worth?
Cash rents are good and land prices are high. I don't know if you can pay for land with present crop prices, but I know cattle won't pay for that land!
In general oil prices are likely to remain fairly high in the long term. If poor countries can't afford high priced food and we lose grain exports because of it, a bio deisel/ethanol industry could soak up the excess? Why produce food at a loss? That is a recipe for disaster.

[checking]

If the livestock industry is being killed by ethanol, perhaps their energies should be geared towards vocalizing complaints about the percent of all food that is left to rot, thrown out, and or landfilled by themselves and their supporters. Strange they never seem to point their fingers at their ways.

Many state that waste is as high as 40% to 50% of all food grown in the world. How does that waste compare to 40% of corn that is actually turned into a usable energy product and protein? Not even in the same ballpark, I would say.