Ontario Agriculture

The network for agriculture in Ontario, Canada

Corn: What now?

Now that the corn price has gone over $5 what does everyone think it will do now?

 

It would be nice to see it continue to go up. Any thoughts of another recession bring the price back down.

 

 

Michael

Views: 105

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by OntAG Admin on September 18, 2010 at 5:48am
Permalink Reply by Joann on September 28, 2010 at 8:24am
By all accounts, the financial situation to the south of us appear to have the hallmarks of another recession as you suggest Michael. As our federal minister of finance, Mr. Flaherty has announced the recession of 08 ended, I can well imagine the looming American financial difficulties will inspire new verbiage for the approaching recession..... but the price of commodities???

There has been some interesting discussions concerning the price of commodities... and as we all know... the price in Chicago does not always translate in the same way to the farmer.

The UN Special Rapporteur on food, Mr. Olivier De Schutter, released a report recently called the Food Commodities Speculation and Food Price Crises.

Mr. De Schutter writes: '[Beginning in ]2001, food commodities derivatives markets, and commodities indexes began to see an influx of non-traditional investors,; De Schutter writes. 'The reason for this was because other markets dried up one by one: the dotcoms vanished at the end of 2001, the stock market soon after, and the US housing market in August 2007. As each bubble burst, these large institutional investors moved into other markets, each traditionally considered more stable than the last. Strong similarities can be seen between the price behaviour of food commodities and other refuge values, such as gold.'

Further stating: 'A significant contributory cause of the price spike [has been] speculation by institutional investors who did not have any expertise or interest in agricultural commodities, and who invested in commodities index funds or in order to hedge speculative bets.'
http://www.stwr.org/food-security-agriculture/food-commodities-spec...

Problem identified.

Now for the reactions: Engage the public

"An ActionAid report released last week revealed that hunger could be costing poor nations $450bn a year – more than 10 times the amount needed to halve hunger by 2015 and meet Millennium Development Goal One." http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/24/food-crisis-un-em...

Solution: take Sovereignty away from individual nations for the ultimate solution of global food regulation.

Jacques Diouf, Director-General, UN Food and Agriculture Organization, called for "bolstered global governance system for world food security". He said, “We have to build a more coherent and effective system of governance for world food security; we have to correct the policies and international trade system that have resulted in more hunger and poverty." when responding to the 2008 food crisis (which many blamed on bio-fuels at the time)


Will the higher prices translate into more money for the farmers? I doubt it. There appears to be a movement afoot to control agricultural commodity prices under the guise of "food security" with enhanced trade.

If anything, food commodity prices will be globally harmonized... which will not bode well for Ontario farmers.

▶ Reply to Discussion

RSS

Agriculture Headlines from Farms.com Canada East News - click on title for full story

Comfort over courage: The cost of playing it safe in agriculture

There is a quiet crisis in Canadian agriculture. It doesn’t make headlines or trigger emergency meetings, but it is real. Across too much of our industry, initiative has been replaced with hesitation, courage with caution, and leadership with maintenance. We have grown timid, content to manage the past instead of creating the future. We’ve seen this before in Canada. We led the world with Nortel, a company born from Canadian innovation, and watched it collapse under the weight of indecision and caution. We had a second chance with BlackBerry, a global icon that redefined communication, yet we hesitated again. Twice, we mistook comfort for success, and twice we lost the leadership we had earned. Agriculture now stands at a similar crossroads. We have built a world-class system admired for its science, efficiency, and resilience. But if we keep managing yesterday instead of building tomorrow, we will repeat the same national mistake: protecting what we have until it is gone. If we are

New Wheat Crop Report Includes Assessment of Eastern Canada Wheat for First Time

Cereals Canada has released its annual New Wheat Crop Report, the first time the assessment has included wheat from eastern Canada. Compiled for global and domestic customers of Canadian wheat, the report includes information on milling performance, flour/semolina quality, and end-product functionality for Canada’s 2025 wheat crop. Cereals Canada generated the data for the 2025 New Wheat Crop Report through its Harvest Assessment Program, which has traditionally only included wheat from Western Canada. This year, through a partnership with Grain Farmers of Ontario, the organization also assessed eastern wheat classes. According to a Cereals Canada release, favourable weather throughout the eastern Canada winter wheat growing season resulted in “strong yields and good quality.” “This was a milestone year for Cereals Canada,” said Elaine Sopiwnyk, vice president of technical services. “Having the opportunity to analyze wheat from across the country broadened the expertise of o

IGC Raises World Grains Production Estimate Again

The International Grains Council’s estimate of 2025-26 total world grains production is continuing to move higher. The inter-governmental agency’s monthly Grain Market Report on Thursday pegged total global grains output (wheat and coarse grains) at a new record of 2.43 billion tonnes, up 5 million from the October projection and 5% above the previous year’s 2.325 billion. Harvests have so far been “better than expected,” the IGC said, noting that its 2025-26 production estimate has been revised higher in consecutive months since August. This year’s expected larger global harvest will more than compensate for the tightest opening stocks in 10 years, the IGC said, boosting the overall 2025-26 grain supply by 3%, to an all-time high of roughly 3.02 billion. On the demand side, increases for food, feed and industrial uses are projected to push total 2025-26 consumption to a record 2.4 billion tonnes, a 2% increase on the year. At an estimated 619 million tonnes, total global grains

Ont. farmer raises money for employees affected by Hurricane Melissa

An Ontario farmer raised more than $15,000 for his Jamaican migrant workers

CFIA suspends certain livestock shipments from the U.S.

Horses in Arizona tested positive for vesicular stomatitis

© 2025   Created by Darren Marsland.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service