[PhebaAndThePilgrim]

Good day all:
Here in the Midwest the rain has been crazy. Farmers are becoming desperate to get in the fields to sow corn and soybeans. the fields are too muddy. The Pilgrim said something to me the other day that got me to thinking: He said: "Every day after about the 22nd of May the farmer loses a bushel an acre". He was talking about the delay for sowing corn.
I was recently told, and please correct me if this figure is wrong, that a full 50% of U.S. corn crop is now going for ethanol production.
Also, the powers that be are considering increasing percentage of ethanol in fuel.
My feeling is that we are leaving ourselves open by using a fuel source that leaves us completely at the mercy of nature. Nature is capricious, and never more so than with farming. Not enough rain, too much rain, blistering heat, etc. .
Even with the huge inputs of synthetic chemicals, and huge tractors, farmers are still at the mercy of nature. It is easy to forget that.
So, on top of the escalating cost of petroleum, the works of nature are being figured in to our economic stability.
In so many ways, ethanol makes no sense to me.
Of course it makes great sense to farmers. The subsidies for growing corn now border on the ridiculous. Even with lower yield the farmer still does well financially.
And, the bigger the farm, I am talking thousands of acres, the higher the subsidies.
Just the way I see things from the farm.
Pheba.

[AgentR11]

Nah, you just misunderstand the purpose of Ethanol.

Ethanol is created to remove food corn from the market, thus increasing overall price of grain imports into oil producing countries.

Its a shot across the bow at this point. Reminding the oil producers that, yes they have some power over the health of our economy, but that we too have such power over them as well; and while we whine and moan about not being able to drive to the beach, the whining their population will/does do when they can't afford to buy bread is of a substantially different character. Everyone got an interesting taste of that this spring.. surprisingly, its less painful to die by being shot than it is to die of starvation, and thus, a government's soldiers and police stop looking so intimidating.

I think for a long time, they thought that we couldn't or wouldn't do such a thing.
Now they know we can, will, and do do such things; you'll see this phrased in their stuff as "we need to keep prices reasonable/below $x so that our customers aren't forced to find alternatives."... Even though everyone knows alternatives at current scale simply aren't possible.

[Loki]

You both make good points. Agent, I hadn't thought of that before, almost makes me support corn ethanol.

Pheba, midwestern farmers aren't the only ones dealing with wet weather, the little veggie farm I work at here in Oregon is also behind because of the weather. Very annoying. A repeat of last spring. Supposed to dry up considerably this month, though.

[timmac]

Nah, you just misunderstand the purpose of Ethanol.

Ethanol is created to remove food corn from the market, thus increasing overall price of grain imports into oil producing countries.

Its a shot across the bow at this point.

Why we haven't use food as a weapon before gets me, we have been dealing with the Mid-East problem since the Jimmy Carter era, we are the bread basket of the world and why should we sell to countries that want us dead, lets see how far the Mid-East can survive with overpopulation without Americas food, [and cut off all food to Venezuela as well]

[Satori]

too much rain in the midwest,
here in coastal N.C. not enough
according to a front page story in a local paper
corn yields to be 30 bushels per acre at best
and probably a lot less

[Rod_Cloutier]

In my mind the greatest single threat from global warming would be 'disruptions to agriculture', caused by changing climate conditions. Somehow this point always gets glossed over by people debating sea-ice cover, hurricanes, sea level rise and tornado activity.

Living in an industrial society, I have never lived though a 'Famine' year. I'm somewhat prepared growing a garden each summer and always having at least 2 months worth of food in the house. I don't know how people living day to day, used to eating out primarily at fast food restraunts for most of their meals, ect, are going to react to a single famine year. (To say nothing of a return to a series of crop failure years).

I predict with the first major western famine we will see hoarding, riots, and overall social collapse. (Completely unneccessary if most people would make basic preparations).

I figure I would need almost an entire warehouse full of food to keep me & my family to the end of my lifetime. This would be impossible to store and most things would spoil far before they could be used. I figure I should stock up on seeds in years when the event a major famine looks inevitable?? Hard to predict in advance what is necessary, and what is an overreaction.

[Pops]

I'll give the 'pubs one for cutting corporate farm subsidies, even Grassley seems to accept it. The problem is of course that the "good" funding goes out with the bad:

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As I was (always) ranting the other day, monocropping is a great thing 'till it ain't. A nice uniform product is what global trade is all about, whether it's a pair of pliers or a french fry. The difference is that the potato is really more like a race car, designed to do one thing really well within certain parameters, throw a new bug at it or a wet season or a drought and it dies.

[chris89]

My spot in the UK is incredibly dry. I heard something like 4.5mm of rain in 4 months. A lot of harvests set to fail in the region. Wild fires all over the place, one near where I live. All after the coldest winter for 30 years...

[PhebaAndThePilgrim]

Hi Loki: Last summer's garden was a disaster. it rained all summer long. Fungus destroyed tomato crop. Cabbages were small and stunted. Beautiful 25 to 30 pound watermelons, but when they were split open the insides were white. There was so much rain, it washed the sugar from the plant. I did not realize watermelons could get too much water. I am so hoping this summer is not a repeat of last summer. I was able to put up 9 months of tomatoes and peppers last year, but barely. there was nothing left over to sell. Potatoes were lousy last year also. We depend on the food we store to keep grocery bill down. It is frustrating at times.
Pheba.

[Loki]

Hi Loki: Last summer's garden was a disaster. it rained all summer long. Fungus destroyed tomato crop. Cabbages were small and stunted. Beautiful 25 to 30 pound watermelons, but when they were split open the insides were white. There was so much rain, it washed the sugar from the plant. I did not realize watermelons could get too much water. I am so hoping this summer is not a repeat of last summer. I was able to put up 9 months of tomatoes and peppers last year, but barely. there was nothing left over to sell. Potatoes were lousy last year also. We depend on the food we store to keep grocery bill down. It is frustrating at times.
Pheba.

I know nothing about climate in your area, but we're experiencing the effects of a La Nina season, which is supposed to wind down this month according to NOAA. We don't usually get much rain May-Oct, so our wet May has been a pain in the butt. Grass is loving it though, I heard lamb producers are having a great season so far. Good reason to be as diversified as possible.

Last year was a bad tomato year around here, too, hoping we won't see a repeat of that, the farm I work on depends on income from tomatoes. Potatoes didn't do all that well last year either, but that's not much of a money maker.