I have no idea what this means. Must be over my head. I did see a news report from Iowa today about the dismal crop situation there. They estimated that the price impact of this crop failure would impact the consumer next year to the effect of $100 of groceries today will cost $104 or $105 next year.

I've seen the same reports on the crop failure, which I'e been following for weeks, and on the expected price increases. I actually expect it will be somewhat worse when all is said and done. Since so much corn is used as feed in the production of animals, including not just meat animals but also dairy animals, we'll see prices go up on all kinds of things as the effects of the increased corn prices sort of trickle down.

This is one good reason to grow your own to the extent that you can and to preserve it. It helps insulate your family budget a little bit from the ups and downs of commodity prices.

We didn't have a very good corn harvest in our garden this year but we saved and preserved what we could.

The USA normally is a major corn exporter. I assume we'll keep as much of this year's crop here as we can and export less than usual.

Dawn

We had a fair sweet corn harvest but didn't even plant meal corn this year. Planted it last year and had a deer related crop failure. Still have a couple gallons of meal corn from the year before. Hope to be able to buy 25# of whole yellow corn in the fall when Paula orders from Walton Feeds. Last year there was no whole corn on the list. Only corn meal.

The corn crop is said to be 40-50 percent of normal. There are a number of corn growers north of me (northeast OK) that I can see from the road and the corn is standing in the field and totally dead. I saw fields of milo and soy beans that were still green last week, but not as tall as they normally are.

We have had 17 days this month when the temp was one hundred or more and our rainfall is 19/100 of an inch for the month. The 10 day forecast on Intellicast shows nothing under 100 for the next 10 days.

The corn crop alone has been estimated to effect the grocery dollar by 4-5 percent which would be the same as what Mia posted above. I would think that winter squash (pumpkin) and things that aren't normally harvested until Fall will probably be in short supply as well, but that is a guess. Even Fall brassica crops may not even be planted.

A lot of people are selling off livestock because they don't have their own feed, and can't afford to buy it. Meat prices will drop as a result, but will climb once the overage has ended.

Dairy herds have to eat also, so herds will likely be reduced. As the demand becomes greater than the supply, they can charge what they want to. Even if they keep the same herd, their costs are going to escalate, and someone has to pay for that.

Chickens and turkeys need feed and in the few years that I have had chickens I have watched the prices soar. We paid about $7 a 50 pound bag at first and now it is just about twice that, and that was without this publicized corn shortage.

My garden harvest was good this year, but only during Spring and early Summer. These temps, without rainfall, have shutdown almost everything. It's too dry and hot to start anything for Fall. If I can't grow in my home garden, I suspect that commercial growers are going to have even more trouble growing in the field.

I said last year that our economy was going to get worse, before it got better, and I believe that has now happened. I still think we are in for a bumpy ride, some high prices, and maybe some food shortages. Not starvation, just the inability to find some of the things we normally buy, or maybe it will be there and just too expensive for the pocketbook.

One of the worst parts of this is that much of what we are seeing as a problem is worldwide, not just isolated areas.

So.....if you want pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, you might think of buying a few cans. LOL Now a disclaimer...I haven't heard anything specific about the pumpkin harvest.

Mia;
I was "watching" things when MF Global stole 2 million (or was it 'billion'?) dollars out of these poor folks' accounts - it's their money that was in "reserve" for use as a back up for their other money that was in the market. Their 'traders' (Jon Corzine at MF Global is the fall guy and is running around free, of course) ran off with their security money - money that is supposed to be untouchable. In reality that number is more like $8 million. Currently there is no "rule of law" in the markets.

If I understand it all correctly I read that many of those customers were farmers and ranchers' and their money as usually occurs to help them get money up front before harvest. They use it to produce the barrels and bushels to be sold on the market. Big farmers, of course. Ergo, they use taders. Because those poor farmers and ranchers were wiped out those farms will not be providing the food.

All this has happened in addition to the drought-ridden farms. bad news for some food prices (mainly corn, soybean and some other beans). I don't know much more than all this myself, but it definitely is bad news which Ann is speaking of.

bon

We purchase our animal feed in bulk, which is much cheaper than in bags. When we do, I load our Ford Ranger with all the feed barrels I can, and head to the mill. They weigh the truck before and after loading. I come home with an average of 750 lb of feed. A year ago we were paying about $86. Last weekend we paid $133.

I don't believe the official figures on inflation. When I compare our records on the actual cost of the things we purchase, over a couple of years, the increase is much greater than what the media is telling me.

We have to reduce our livestock in order to feed them. I suspect most producers have to do the same. To do this after so many cut to the bone last year is phenomenal.

I would really like the U.S.A. stop burning corn for fuel, as it is not an efficient way to use our corn.

George
Tahlequah, OK

I'm so sorry to hear that, George. It has been incredibly difficult and will be even more so to come. I wish they would drop corn fuel, too. Everyone I talk to believes they need to stop doing it, but they persist and it makes no sense.

If how we're living now is an indicator of the economic impact (overall) it's stagflation (no money and everything is more expensive, too). That's the worst imaginable and we're expecting it. If we're going to eat we better be growing or raising it ourselves.

bon

Anyone have grains they can send me?

boniyah2000@gmail.com

I'm with you about turning corn into gasoline, George, which is why I will only buy at stations that have an "ethanol-free" pump. I don't care if it is a few cents higher. I get better gas mileage by not using it.

Don't forget that High Fructose Corn Syrup is found in thousands of food products, including most sweetened cereals, baked goods, salad dressings, ketchup, sodas, some fruit juices or fruit-juice like products, waffles, pancake syrup, some canned fruits (unless they specify 'no sugar added' or sometimes 'light'), yogurts that contain fruit, many kinds of marinades and bottled sauces, etc. Lots of fast food items contain HFSC. It won't just be the obvious things that will go up with rising corn prices, but so many other thousands of products as well.

Because the price of poultry feed will rise, so will the price of eggs and products that contain eggs, which includes many baked goods.

The trickle-down effect of the corn and other crop failures will be tremendous and will be felt for the next year. Then, what if the corn crop fails next year, hmmm? What then?

We are very spoiled in this country and are used to being able to buy whatever grocery products we want whenever we want them, as long as they fit within our family's budget. We may find more food items move out of the price range we'll willing or even able to pay as a result of crop failures.
I agree that corn should be used as food, not fuel. Our family doesn't buy ethanol fuels and lots of gas stations here prominently post signs that say "No Ethanol Here". I like that.

Carol, I haven't checked on the pumpkin crop, but know that with the heat wave and drought being widespread, it may be in trouble. I love pumpkin pie and expect to be making them this fall from the Seminole pumpkins now growing in my garden. I always have a backup plan though, and right now I have three huge cans of pumpkin in my pantry.

I try to stay ahead of any food shortages that will cause substantial price increases. Last year, knowing the peanut crop was failing, we stocked up on peanut butter in early autumn buying two very large jars of peanut butter every time we were in Sam's or CostCo. By the time the price increase hit, we had 10 or 12 jars in our pantry and we still have 2 or 3 of those left. We'd have more, but I make lots of peanut butter cookies for our firefighters to eat at fires because the peanut butter cookies contain more protein than most other cookies

George, I'm sorry you're having to reduce your livestock. It is very frustrating. After multiple droughts here in the 2000s, everyone around us has reduced and reduced and reduced until there's really not that much left to reduce. One of our friends is down to 10 cows on rather substantial acreage. He only kept what he thought he'd be able to feed. It is a tough thing to have to do, especially when you are raising your livestock to provide your family with your own food.

I still feel like things will get worse before they get better. As y'all have no doubt noticed, even the farmers and ranchers who've gotten a decent hay crop cut and baled now are losing the hay in the fields when wildfire sweeps across an area. Often the fire starts elsewhere and moves onto their property so quickly they cannot protect the hay and save it. We've had guys here lose their half-baled hay in the field when the baler starts a fire that consumes the baled hay, the unbaled hay, etc.

So often when there is the kind of drought that causes meat producers to reduce the size of their animal herd, the drought is in places like Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas where drought is fairly common and herd reductions have become pretty common as well. This year it also is occurring in many, many other states, and I think the results will be felt more deeply.

As gardeners, we should be able, most of the time, to raise substantial amounts of veggies, herbs and some fruits for our families. The droughts we've had these last two years in combination with record-breaking and near-record-breaking heat is making it harder and harder to garden successfully. I'm not saying we can't do it, but just that it seems to be a whole lot more challenging than it used to be. If the drought persists, it does get to where we can't do it very well if at all.

What happens to the few garden plants still hanging on if rain doesn't return in any decent amount until October or November?

Dawn

I dont normally get into this type of discussion even though my feelings are much the same as all of you. I have seen prices rise and fall all my life (mostly rise). Off the top of my head I can only remember electric prices falling. Most of my life has been in manufacturing, and technology has made it easier to do more with less. Now here comes MY grip, we have more people in non-productive jobs than ever before, we have more people drawing some kind of government check, we have more people in jail, and others that should be, we also have more people trying to keep them from going to jail. We have so many that are satisfied with being GIVEN a little, rather than given the opportunity to work for a lot. Our nation is broken and the problems run much deeper than the price of corn.

I am not very nice, so now I will shut up.

Larry

When we acquired the book bindery in 2006 it was only a hand-book bindery (hard back). Bill and I turned it into a semi-automatic. Not everything could be done with home-made equipment. Only an minimum investment of 2million would do to make it fully automated and if we did that we'd only have 2 competitors nationwide. Still, at one point, we were looking into it as we were doing so very well. Intuition suggested I stay away from loans even though the government would have made it easier and backed the loan. Then the political changes that rendered manufacturing and small business growth mute for reasons I won't go into (because all political is crap imo).

What I found interesting was the attitude of people in the industries that utilized our services and products. They wanted it fast, fast, fast and didn't understand the work utilized coupled with the need for accuracy in hand performance. We, literally, had to make our deadlines but without the reliance of accuracy given by machines. In many cases if a mistake was made the entire job had to be done at least half way through for all books into question. Individuals didn't mind so much, but the businesses would not accept it.

I remember noticing that huge gap in understanding. Only we understood this meaning of real "work" while everyone else such as the local newspapers who were making phone calls and pushing buttons to have their ads changed and their print ran somewhere else on multimillion-dollar machines while we were still doing things the old fashion-way and the oil workers complained from being forced to work overtime. Customers got mad and nothing we said seemed to make a difference. They refused to understand why we could not comply to an entirely automated world. Heck, even the new hot foil stamping machines look and perform much the same as they did forty years ago and they even utilize the type-sets Benjamin Franklyn's printing era used. In addition to these old methods we had no central heat and air. We remained poor while working but were so very happy.

Still, it wasn't this that put us under as it was the economy and outside political forces. Even though a bindery had been in our stupid little city for more than 25 years and even though customers would drive 100s of miles to drop off their cherished bibles to be repaired and large publishing companies were contacting us to have some unique work done, the stupid city I live in has their mind and hearts set on another oil boom like in the past and in direct and indirect ways they ran our business out of town which would have been great were it not for the economy that began to tank for us in 2009. They'll never have their easy and quick money through oil ever again but refuse to see it.

Now, truth: The problem is really big and not little, me thinks. The attitude becomes pervasive on an individual scale but (for various reasons), truly, it's the get rich quick schemes that are creating an inequality and an air of potential to making money out of thin air.

Look at that chart above. What it realizes: Someone is making a ton of money off the reality that people across the globe are going to be dying of starvation within the next year because of the corn and grain shortages. They've been BETTING ON IT. The acceptance of this immoral behavior is, I believe, the crux of the pervasive ideology that one "need not work hard to make money" because there is no moral obligation to consider. It's been glamorized, sought after and the most heavily lobbied and politically supported greed (and now graft) in existence. In fact, it's killing us all.

Today's charts made me cry.

Trading is not immoral - betting is.

Every single one of the Arab Spring uprisings can be connected to a spike in food prices because of shortages or otherwise and it didn't work in many places. Yemen is now looking like Ethiopia starvation. And this market activity is LEGAL. There is no rule of law in the market right now otherwise. The creme de le creme has been manipulating the bank figures - the same ones the middle class bailed out in 2009!! Customer's money in segregated and protected accounts are literally disappearing by crooks all over the world.

I'm at home learning to garden because it's wholesome and good, but really I'm doing it because I believe we must. And I no longer believe the problem stems from greed and corruption. I know it is. And so many of them are also betting on the fact that we blame each other so we're not looking at them. They won that bet too,

No mobs.

The verbiage carried by Draghi (European equivalent of Ben Bernanke) and Bernanke is, essentially, "We'll be intervening soon." meaning they will be forced to buying out bond or printing more money to help the economy which is coming to a halt right now. That means more inflation on top of these horrible increase of prices. And it's not just Bernanke saying this because the problem is GLOBAL. While the U.S. is struggling on its own the European economy is weighing it down very heavily in intricate ways that is non-reversible, non-negotiable. Not a one of us lives our lives in a way that is not intricately connected to activities on foreign shores though we may never stop and think about it. When and where it stops is debatable but the fact that it will is inevitable. When certain sections (not all because the global economy is wonderfully resilient) are hit, cut or rendered helpless it will become systemic like a contagious virus. Draghi and Bernanke are making subtle and cunning moves keeping the sentiment-driven market afloat by making statements of empty rhetoric or acting physically in matters such as printing money. Mostly, they keep touting words in the air that make a shift in the market not unlike a debtor stating "The check is in the mail." all in an effort to hope the economy will merely peter out unless of collapsing like a system of dominoes.

In comparison to the rest of the world the MF and PFG money scams are a cake walk in comparison to the rest of the world that remains completely ignorant while corruption and graft moves continuously outside of open-media sources. At least we have the ability to "know". The Yemenis? Not so much. They can only blame their regimes.

Mark my words. Unless internet access becomes unobtainable the members of this forum will grow exponentially within the next 12 months. We're already seeing it happen, but not one of us actually talks about why.

But what is it going to be? "To each his own." because some political alliance has taught us that people are just too lazy and selfish Or are we going to band together and help each other like they did in the depression recognizing all the while the corrupt politicians and bankers are (literally) making off with our hard-earned money and our neighbors have naught to do with it.

I guess I need to buck up to the reality of the answer and just go file for disability.

Thanks
bon

This is an interesting discussion. Something that has been on my mind a lot.

Has anybody ever seen these DVDs? I saw her video on You-Tube and the trailer on this page and was wondering if the DVDs are worth the money...

Shelley

Here is a link that might be useful: Grow Your Own Groceries

I agree with Larry, but he still doesn't go far enough IMO. Anyone who is very active in smaller communities knows he is just touching the surface of the problem.

I disagree with much of Bon's post though.

Anyway, we as a nation spend the smallest percentage of income on food of any country in modern history if my memory serves, so we are still very fortunate.

My tomatoes shall not be rotten.

What a blight on society and financial recovery when people maintain the dignity to stick to their principles and refuse acquiescence to a city rife with corruption, graft and injustice. I guess that leaky roof atop $20,000 worth of clients' book manuscripts never got fixed because I didn't rub elbows with the right people or because I wasn't "very active in smaller communities" after all those hours of hard work. I should have gotten a button-pushing job so I'd have more time for the important things - politics. How stupid of me to expect conformity to well-established laws designed to protect the livelihood and dignity of all citizens. What was I thinking? Thanks for shedding the light. tsk tsk Crack that whip boys! May all your trees and cows die.

This party is over.