As drought destroys the U.S. corn crop and drives prices skyward,
the U.S. now buys corn from Brazil and faces the end of its prized role
as the world's top food supplier. It's time to scrap the ethanol
mandate.
There's a whiff of foreboding about an already-economically enfeebled U.S. now losing its crown as the nation whose corn harvest could feed the world.
The worst drought since 1956 has hit 88% of the U.S. corn crop and is driving corn prices sharply higher.
For the first time, U.S. agricultural companies are importing corn from Brazil — the equivalent of Saudi Arabia importing oil, as the Financial Times noted.
The Mayan calendar forecasts apocalypse in 2012. By creepy coincidence, the mighty Mayan empire itself fell due to a corn drought. But the drought affecting the U.S. is entirely due to market dynamics.
Droughts happen all the time. Under normal market conditions, crops from elsewhere pick up the slack.
There's nothing wrong with importing from Brazil, but it's a strange dynamic because our country is so big and has so much in reserve it shouldn't have to import.
Read more: http://news.investors.com/article/619723/201207251831/a-drought-of-us-leadership.htm
There's a whiff of foreboding about an already-economically enfeebled U.S. now losing its crown as the nation whose corn harvest could feed the world.
The worst drought since 1956 has hit 88% of the U.S. corn crop and is driving corn prices sharply higher.
For the first time, U.S. agricultural companies are importing corn from Brazil — the equivalent of Saudi Arabia importing oil, as the Financial Times noted.
The Mayan calendar forecasts apocalypse in 2012. By creepy coincidence, the mighty Mayan empire itself fell due to a corn drought. But the drought affecting the U.S. is entirely due to market dynamics.
Droughts happen all the time. Under normal market conditions, crops from elsewhere pick up the slack.
There's nothing wrong with importing from Brazil, but it's a strange dynamic because our country is so big and has so much in reserve it shouldn't have to import.
Read more: http://news.investors.com/article/619723/201207251831/a-drought-of-us-leadership.htm
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