Farmer Bob

60 Minutes on Oil: Did Anyone Verify Anything?

I don't have the location of the Brook's paper,but here is one written in May of 2008.
www.globalresearch.ca/...

The list of banks heavy in Energy speculation looks eerily similar the banks standing there with hands out when Hank Paulson started giving the bail out funds.

Coincidence? I think not

Mosaic: Feeding on Higher Prices, But Outlook Is Scrawny

What Prokopanko did not want to say is: We priced our product so high that the farmers did not buy, and now our storage and transportation facilities are full. We are trying to maintain the (artificially) HIGH prices, by cutting production.
In the long run we know this stuff will sell, we are just not sure at what price the farmers will be willing to pay.

Thats the real world quick and dirty summary

Yes, food supply will be needed, the question is: Will the world be able to buy it? What will the dollar be worth,along with all the other currencies of the world?

And, what is the alternative? Worldwide starvation?

The Outlook for Corn

Liquidity was the problem, and that has been severely curtailed. Speculators have moved on, the commodity markets are not generating the returns the greedy specs need.
They will be back.
I agree the govenrment policies and money supply is the deep underlying root of the problems.
Oil is in the same situation, the big difference between oil and ag commodities is the yearly growing cycles,and the weather factor.

The drilling for oil in less profitable conditions will grind to a halt, that kind of oil exploration takes real venture capital, and of course the sources of venture capital have dried up too.

I think the worst is yet to come, policy, and regulation will help, but it is going to be a rocky road.

Looking forward with caution

The Outlook for Corn

I am a farmer and Crop Insurance agent, in the western corn belt. The USDA report,which most of you live and die for, could well be wrong. There is more corn in the bins than most years, The yields have yet to be compiled in the real world. As a Federal crop insurance agent, I can tell you, a lot of farmers are not divulging the amount of corn they have on hand until the last possible moment. Regional elevators (corn Buyers) and ethanol plants are struggling to get farmers to bring the grain in. Local ethanol plants are paying premiums over CBOT just to keep enough corn on hand to run the plants. Most of the corn in the on- farm storage has not been priced. Yes, there is still unharvested corn,and snow will prevent much of it from getting harvested before late spring.

It has been a tough year, logistically,weather wise,financially. The future looks even more uncertain. Credit is tight,inputs are high.

The plans on my farm include buying enough seed to swing corn or bean acres either way at the latest possible date. The winter wheat has been planted, with the snow cover,it should survive and do well.

This is not an easy business, and ,It is my belief that speculators pushed the commodity prices far outside the parameters of supply and demand, which has now caused entire industries into survival mode (ethanol,cattle producers)

Real people are losing jobs,careers,homes, over the irresponsible actions of huge speculators. Speculators should get a real job.

Monsanto and the fertilizer industry took the opportunity to set themselves up for huge profits also, but the farmers have balked at paying astronomical prices, and these markets are feeling that now.


If anything should be learned from 2008, the year of BIG swings, BIG is not always better. Speculators,banks,seed companies may have gotten too BIG, controlling the market only works for a while, then the bloodshed comes.

Good luck to all of you, you will need it, as wil I.

Verasun Energy: Thin Margin Co's Are One Bad Economic Turn Away from Disaster

Danno, you seem quite bitter, and I am wondering why. Ethanol may not be the perfect alternative fuel, but it is certainly a step in the right direction. I am a Farmer, and Investor in 2 ethanol plants (not Vera-Sun) and I hope your attitude towards ethanol is limited to some narrow minded low population group. The oil companies have fought ethanol every step of the way and I wonder why? Ethanol can only help extend the reign of Big Oil a little longer. There is much more to the ethanol industry than you are seeing, do a little more research. Speculators who drive the market prices of commodities way outside of the normal supply and demand forces, do cause problems, big problems, and where do their profits end up?

Prior to the market collapse it was hard to get anyone to admit speculators were driving the market up, as soon as they all pulled out, it seemed like a common known fact.

Transparency in the market may help, who are these big speculators?

Do they feel any remorse when an ethanol plant closes in a small Midwestern town,and jobs are lost?