Didn’t we just do this?
Posted: January 5, 2011 Filed under: Environment, Farming, Food, toxic waste | Tags: bubble, commodity prices, corn, food, gm pigs, wheat 36 Comments(In which Sima works herself up into a frothing rant.)
Commodity futures prices, wheat, rice and corn, are rising again after a brief fall. In fact, they are supposed to top the records set in 2007/08 during the global food bubble.
Supposedly, Corn Rationing Needs to Begin:
“The corn market has one job and one job only—to go high enough to make people stop using the product,” says Ryan Turner, risk management consultant for FCStone, Kansas City. “We are past the point of encouraging more supply.” Turner predicts 2011 corn futures prices will exceed 2008 highs. “I don’t know if it will happen in January or June, but it will happen,” he says.
Soaring corn prices will slice into demand, with corn exports expected to fall first followed by feed usage. Analysts anticipate the cattle industry to begin rationing earlier than other livestock sectors due to poor margins, but rationing in poultry, hog, and dairy will be close behind. “It will be very painful,” Turner adds.
Those greedy so-and-sos! Imagine, eating corn and corn products? Making corn into feed to raise farm animals and then slaughtering those animals to feed humans. And furthermore, they feed the corn to dairy cows and produce milk and cheese and butter! Will the horror never end!
Obviously, everyone needs to suffer (UN: World Food Prices Hit a Record High in December). Especially the world’s poor. And those who produce the meat we Americans so love to eat are not to be excluded from the necessary pain. And those who produce the dairy we love to drink and nosh on with our imported European crackers. And those who make corn into tortillas, and those who make corn into corn syrup and those who make corn into ethanol… oh wait. Not those. In fact, those last ones may be part of what is driving the rise in corn prices. Nearly 1/3 of the 2010 US corn production was diverted to ethanol, after all.
Note: it’s not that we don’t have enough corn. In fact:
The past eight corn crops have been the largest in U.S. history, so the probability that another large crop will be on tap for 2011-12 is high.
And wheat is doing well in the US. In fact, for the northwest, it’s the best harvest in over four years, and the cooperative serving the northwestern farmers has made them their second best profit in 73 years.
But apparently corn prices need to move high to ‘shake out end users’ so they ‘cut back quickly’.
“Corn has never traded this high so consistently at this time of year,” Grisafi says. The upside price potential for 2011 corn prices is nearly unlimited in his view. “It’s the price that bankrupts the meat and ethanol industries,” Grisafi says.
Well, this all sounds very good and Capitalist. American Way, Survival of the Fittest, Economic Darwinian Selection, Mumble Mumble (muttered in a deep, rumbling, posh kind of semi-British accent). But what does it mean to us?
Less food. More farmers, ranchers and dairies going out of business. More suffering as dairy cattle are killed because they can’t be fed (it’s going to take most dairy farmers 10 to 11 years to pay back the debt they incurred, if they stayed in business, because of the 2007-08 bubble. More families moving off the land, leaving a void for Big Ag. Move on in, Monsanto! Because Big Ag is big enough to survive these little ups and downs on the commodities market, in good capitalist fashion.
Didn’t we already do this? Haven’t we learned that you don’t blow food up into a bubble (unless it’s a latex type product with flavoring added)? Apparently the tea party contingent has it in for farmers and the poor people the agricultural part of the Federal budget (about 1.62% of the whole budget) feeds with food subsidies, so we can take comfort in the fact that the slaughter will be widespread and non-diverse, only affecting the poor and those idiots who live in the country.
It’s not just corn they are messing with either. An article over at the World Socialist Web Site (see also Food Freedom Blog) discusses wheat and rice, as well as corn. The prices of all are being blown up into a bubble which could lead to another world food crisis. Current prices are already near the peak of the 2008 bubble. In 2010 nearly 1 billion people suffered from hunger across the world. But remember, we need to shake out the end users so they cut back quickly!
This post is probably a bit too sarcastic, and because of that, simple. However this is how I have felt lately after watching the stupidity of the last 10 years repeated over, and over, and over again. I’m beyond despair. I’m into raging anger and biting, caustic sarcasm.
In other news, BBC reports that a new GM pig could herald big things for the environment. This pig has been genetically modified using genes from mice and e. coli so that the pig can digest phosphates. The result, at least the one the Dr. Frankensteins… err scientists were trying for, is that the pigs can digest more phosphates. This means they can be feed less expensive foods, and that their, errmmm, by-product, is less offensive to the environment. Wonderful! ::long pause:: Do you know any environmentally conscious, tree-hugger weenie types who are going to eat a GM pig, even if it does crap out better poo? Yea, me neither. And I can’t, for the life of me, figure out how this pig is going to make food more abundant for the poor and so on. Remember, the poor? Who can’t afford meat? Who are more efficiently fed by taking the ‘commodities’ meant for animal food and giving it straight to the countries with the most poverty? The GM changes in the pig do make it much easier for CAFOS and their toxic manure lagoons, however.
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I knew they’d try to blow a commodity bubble.
Yep, here it comes. Right down the pike. And we can’t do much about it except duck and cringe.
Unfortunately, it’s not going to bring income to farmers any more than than the gas price hikes helped gas stations. It’s one messed up world.
But the end men and the middlemen will make out like bandits! Or something. If corn is going to be priced so high, and wheat, then I want to be allowed to grow my own feed. That’s illegal now, although they probably won’t go after such a small timer as I am.
That’s only right. Unless you can partner with some other small farmer.
Actually, that’s a good idea. Feed exchange! I couldn’t grow enough corn, but I could grow enough mangels/beets for silage.
“This pig has been genetically modified using genes from mice and e. coli…”
YUM! It’s not just what’s for dinner. Perhaps these unsavory sounding frankensteins will get people off Big Ag completely. I know the story of salmon crossed with a spider gene put me off farmed fish forever.
They GM’d goats so they’d produce spider silk in their milk. Because spider silk is so strong, they would use this to make very strong, very thin, fibers for whatever need (military I think it was, isn’t it always?).
I nearly vomited when I read that. I dunno why. Those poor goats. What about their kids? What kind of Mengele-type fantatics are we?
Here’s a link, and I was right, it’s military:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/01/0117_020117TVspidermammals.html
That article is also a great argument against the “What would we do without the government subsidizing science?” people. It turns out that when government subsidizes science … it does so to make things useful to governments. Not a word about civilian applications of their newest project…
AHHHHHHHH! Barf! I do think it is some sort of sickness, some sort of disconnect from the basics of nature. I’m gonna turn into a nutty suvivalist and cut myself off from any social contact if this keeps up. Sima, need any help on your farm?
I’m thinking ahead a few years to when I’ll be moving out to my folks place. 40 acres in the middle of state forest and abutting National Park. Over 2 miles from the nearest neighbor. We can all hide there, grow goats and shrooms in the forest, eat cabbage and beans and home raised beef and chicken.
Yea, that’s the ticket. (And, why yes, I DO get my nature/farming/isolationist tendencies from my parents, why do you ask? 🙂 )
In other news, BBC reports that a new GM pig could herald big things for the environment. This pig has been genetically modified using genes from mice and e. coli so that the pig can digest phosphates
You know I’m having a flash back to eons ago in Atlantis…where we f-ed around like this before and made creatures like a half horse and half man…and gave guys bull heads…Greek myth stuff…we are doing it again… Okay joke over: But who in their right mind does this shit? They have no idea whatsoever how this pig will play out…
but does that cause them to pause ? …nah. We are really in trouble if this corporate mind set takes over completely because the logical, illogical end product is : soylent green is people.
HELP US GREAT MOTHER!!
Disgusting. Even if all DNA is the same, just arranged differently, it’s still disgusting.
I read once about a GM product that was so dangerous, they decided to not even test it out. I mean, the Dr. Frankensteins decided that. It even scared them. It was a bacteria that could eat the poop in the manure lagoons.
But it had no enemies and if it got into the soil… Lemme see if I can find more information, it was years ago that I read about it.
This is why GM scares me though. We don’t know, can’t even begin to envision, the natural consequences. And there are other, un-spoken but obvious, consequences. To treat a living thing like a… a… plastic bauble in an assembly line factory is so damaging to whatever it is that makes us human. It’s not many steps above Michael Vick and electrocuting dogs.
Animals are not assembly line widgets. Breeding them as nature intended, liking something about a goat and trying to get that something in the goat’s offspring, is one thing. Plucking apart their DNA and mixing it with spider/whale/whatever DNA is entirely different. It’s sick. It takes whatever spark makes that animal a unique individual and smothers it. Even the spiders deserve better treatment. Maybe especially the spiders. Even the e. coli.
Edited to add a link:
http://www.purefood.org/ge/klebsiella.cfm
I misremembered parts of it. The idea was the bacteria would eat the sludge and produce (who’da thunk) ethanol. The remains would be spread on the fields. But the GM bacteria eats wheat, and grass… If it got out…
Food is getting expensive. I just can’t seem to kick the food habit.
Now that was funny…
You’ve got to try harder! I’m sure the government has a non-funded program for it! Sponsored by Monsanto or Cargill or Archer-Daniels-Mills!
Do you ever sleep? Farming is a day operation
Yes, but it’s winter! And I’m a night person 🙂
Actually, me and the partner have it pretty well worked out. He does the very early morning stuff. I do late evening stuff. During the season we have days that are about 16 hours long so it doesn’t matter if I’m weeding at 8 pm.
And I have the goats trained. They don’t care when they are milked as long as the two sessions are 12-14 hours apart. So I milk at noon and midnight!
How much milk in a given day and what is the market
Well, I milk miniature goats, Nigerian Dwarves. They weigh anywhere from 40 to 55 lbs, full grown. They produce about 3 to 5 pounds of milk a day, sometimes more (a bit over 1/4 to 1/2 a gallon).
I don’t sell the milk right now, because I haven’t raised enough money to get a Grade A license. The license is 50$ a year. The infrastructure will cost anywhere from 20-50k. Heh. So I make all our butter, sour cream, cheese and so on. I trade the milk with a friend for farm fresh eggs. I give away cheese constantly. I’ve perfected a lovely blue, feta, jack, romano, parmesan and more. And of course, chevre of all kinds!
I think the boom and bust cycle got started with small farms where true supply and demand theories got started. Since iit was seasonal or animal gestation based in terms of supply and demand, you needed diversity to survive.
Getting back to world poverty, we have to get back to local substanance. This business of feeding the world lets the traders and big business control to much
I agree about local sustenance. It’s very important.
If we’d stop encouraging African countries to grow products for the world market, and help them develop real strong local agriculture, they’d feed themselves for the most part.
The agricultural cycle of boom and bust, abundance and bitter winter, is something most of us have never even imagined, never mind experienced. And I don’t mean that negatively, really. It creates a different mindset, one we’ve lost.
Whatever you do, don’t eat your seed, your milk cow, or your hens and one rooster.
Oh this is rich!
The best part is Gibbs’ excuse for Obama’s vote juxtaposed with Obama’s little speech about leadership that went along with his vote.
Gibbs: Senator Obama Only Voted Against Raising Debt Ceiling in 2006 Because He Knew It Would Pass Anyway
‘Morning, everyone!
The mind boggles, really. How can they think people’ll believe this stuff?
Oh Sima, the nonsense people will believe!
I got into a, um, discussion, yesterday with an old friend of mine, we’ve known each other since we were kids and adore each other. And her defense of Michael Vick (I linked my piece here to my facebook page) and Obama, what she’s chosen to believe despite all evidence to the contrary, is completely nonsensical. I link to a court judgment of guilty and she dismisses it, unread, as “rumor and speculation.” And this is a woman you’d peg, in normal conversation, as intelligent with an enviable job, nice children, married to a good guy. But she’s chosen her biases and will defend them no matter what. It’s really no different from racism or homophobia – I know what I know and don’t try to confuse me with facts.
Sima, if you can find a way to ship your cheese and other items, I’m a buyer!!!!! I live in Southern California, so cool weather shipping might be ok. And I’m not kidding! We could set it up as paying for the packaging or some such. I would love to get fresh goat’s milk, since that’s all I use now in pasteurized form, but that might be harder.
When the season starts up again, I’ll let you know if I’ve got extra. I don’t sell it though, that’s illegal :). I just give it away. It makes me happy, and I’m learning the craft. When I can finally go professional I’ll have a small stock of unique cheeses ready to go.
I would be another buyer, Sima, especially of the cheeses – so if you do that, please us posted!
Sima – I think the dry ice concept and short term shipping is the only viable route for non pasturized food. Would that work?
Yep, that’s about what would work, unless the cheese is an aged hard cheese. Then it just needs to be cool.
As for shipping the milk, it really does need to be cold. I work hard to get it down to about 40F in 30 minutes using ice water baths in the fridge. The raw milk will keep for as long as two weeks or more, as long as it’s chilled super quickly.
I actually freeze the milk I use for cheese making. It does it no harm (that I’ve discovered). But that’s with my goats and so on. I know freezing can harm cow’s milk, making it separate badly.
So – how does goat mik come out on butterfat testing using the babcock test?
The difference in freezing properties is interesting
Goat milk is ‘naturally homogenized’ or that’s the effect. It has smaller fat molecules and it lacks a coagulation enzyme which cow’s milk contains. So, the fat in goat milk doesn’t separate as easily.
In fact, freezing is the easiest way I know of it get the fat to separate at least a bit. You can use a cream separator, but I don’t usually do that. I just let the milk thaw and then let it sit for a bit (it needs to get at least room temperature for cheese anyway) then skim off the fat.
There are different proteins in goat’s milk as compared to cow’s milk. Also, it really depends upon the breed of goat (and probably the breed of cow, although I am not as familiar with them). My breed, the Nigerian Dwarf, produces milk that is very high in fat (sometimes up to 12% in late lactation!). It’s also full of proteins so it makes more cheese per pound of milk. It’s a bit more like sheep milk or buffalo milk.
When making cheese with my goat’s milk I have to modify the recipes because of the high protein content. They take far less time to coagulate with rennet. Or far less culturing time before the rennet is added, or a combination of both.
And that’s probably more than you wanted to know! I run off at the mouth when I start to get sleepy :).
Ok – Holsteins produce low fat milk in higher volumes. Also are larger in size which works out at end of life when the cow is sold for hamburger. Gurnseys and I think Brown Swiss have higher fat content, but are smaller in size, They also produce smaller quantities of milk.
Public likes lower fat milk so Holstienes tend to dominate the milking herds. Gurnsey owners say they kept a couple of holstiens to wash out the pails after done with milking.
The Nigies produce more milk per pound of food eaten, and it’s higher in fat and protein than the ‘standard’ milk cow. Milk in a carton has gone through a separation and reunion process to standardize it, as well as the homogenization etc.
Used to be that the public liked high fat milk. They’d pick milk (before homogenization) by the thickness of the cream line on top. Producers didn’t like this, because if they didn’t have a thick cream line, they’d not sell as well. And cream is expensive to produce. The cows have to eat well, be in good condition and cows with high cream milk don’t produce as much. So… they started homogenization, which hides the cream line. But the public wanted to know that their milk had cream. They liked it that way. So the standards of regular, low fat, no fat, were developed. None of them, even regular, have the amount of fat that naturally occurs in the milk.
It was after the push for homogenization acceptance that milk fat became a public enemy.
Hm, our food is unsafe thanks to Monsanto but we are going to pay through the nose for it……..yep, that’s our country, leader of the world in corporate interests, every one of them that pays to play.
I wish every citizen would take advantage of the information provided here and a few other blogs, I think they would not be so apathetic. Well, if they don’t get crushed by the vast conspiracy of both parties. Wonder how long we are going to have the internet?
It must be the fat content that makes we love goat cheese so much. Love cream, butter, bacon. I never bought into the margarines or lite , you can not refrigerate them and nothing happens to them – all chemicals.