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

Senior government adviser 'astonished' at Ministers' failure to act swiftly

A senior advisor to the Scottish Government has said he was ‘astonished’ at Ministers’ failure to act swiftly on clear warnings that the Covid virus was ‘vastly more dangerous’ to the elderly and the vulnerable. Professor Mark Woolhouse, who was a member of the Scottish Covid-19 Advisory Group (C19AG) from March 2020, gave evidence to Baroness Hallett’s inquiry that ‘the single most important intervention was always to protect those most vulnerable to severe disease’. Despite this, he said, he and his C19AG colleagues struggled to get Ministers to listen and act on this crucial point despite delivering ‘at least half a dozen direct briefings to the First Minister’ on aspects of the pandemic. The professor, a leading expert on tracking infectious diseases, said: ‘I was astonished throughout those early stages, March through April 2020, how difficult it was to get people to accept that this virus was vastly more dangerous to the elderly, the infirm and the frail than it was to young,

Canada seeking to expand PHL agri role after success of dairy, hog collaboration

CANADA is seeking to expand its footprint in Philippine agriculture following the success of some of its collaborations in the Philippine hog and dairy industries, a Canadian government official said. Diedrah Kelly, executive director of Canada’s Indo-Pacific Agriculture and Agri-Food Office, said at a food security forum late Monday that the use of Canadian technology in some Philippine farms has yielded efficiency and productivity gains. “As a result of this technology, the yield on those cows is about a liter more (of milk) each day than what they had previously,” Ms. Kelly said. “Canadian technology and genetic material are being provided for both pork and dairy,” she added. The technology-sharing supports the Philippines’ drive to expand its dairy industry. The Department of Agriculture (DA) said it set a target of 5% of the Philippines’ dairy requirements to be serviced by domestic production within the next two or three years. The Philippines currently imports about 99% of

This little piggy is in a selfie

Tourists love picturesque places — if a photo can do well on social media, you know that tourists are going to dig that attraction. However, at the New Forest National Park in southern England, tourists seem to love the pigs that roam the park, almost 600 of them. They seem to be so obsessed that they have befriended them and are constantly taking pictures with them. Some of them took it to an extreme and took selfies with the phone near their snouts, while other park workers have also noticed the tourists leaping out of their cars and following the piglets down a busy road. While a few other tourists have taken a more respectful and gentle approach. The visitors have now been labelled the “piggy tourists”, a social crime that has annoyed people at the park as well as those in charge of animal welfare. The reason there are so many pigs in the park is becuse of a yearly ritual called “pannage”, where the swine are released to eat up all the acorns and nuts that could otherwise be toxi

Pig finds new forever home after Albuquerque highway chase

A 1-year-old pig that led New Mexico authorities on an Albuquerque highway chase has a new permanent home, officials said. The pig was spotted on the Interstate 40 off-ramp to Louisiana Boulevard on Nov. 11 and video captured at the scene shows Albuquerque officers chasing the slippery swine through the roadway. The pig was eventually taken to Albuquerque's Westside Shelter and Albuquerque Animal Welfare announced on social media that the animal has found a new forever home. The new owners, who dubbed the pig Boar-is, said they saw his plight on the news and knew he needed to become a new member of the family. The owners, Jerrod and Katherine Hinchman, have another pig named Swine-nona. "When we saw him running, we just saw his little spirit and how hard he was working to survive. And we just knew that he would fit right in with our pig," the Hinchmans told KRQE-TV. The couple said their property has a sturdy fence, so Boar-is will not be going on anymore highway adventures anyti

duBreton Responds to Health Canada's Pause on Cloned-Animal Novel Food Policy

duBreton acknowledges Health Canada's decision to indefinitely paused its proposed update to the novel food policy governing foods derived from cloned cattle and swine, as well as their progeny. The organization's recent announcement credits the hold to the volume and nature of feedback received from both industry stakeholders and the public. As a Canadian leader in responsible and ethically raised pork production, duBreton welcomes this pause as an important opportunity for Canadian food officials to deepen engagement with producers, retailers, and most importantly Canadian consumers. "Canadians expect clarity, transparency, and meaningful consultation on issues that directly touch their food supply," said Vincent Breton, duBreton President. "As producers, we consider it our responsibility and believe our governing food authorities should too." duBreton reached out to Health Canada following the novel food announcement and received confirmation, gene-editing technologies are not in

© 2025   Created by Darren Marsland.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service