The United States produces 44 percent of the world’s corn crop, and 38 percent of its soy. A huge portion of that massive harvest is grown in a single region: the Midwest. And over the past couple of weeks, torrential rains have hammered that area, at a particularly sensitive time for its grand swath of corn and soybean plants.
An unusually wet spring had already pushed farmers to plant their crops late and forced them to keep some land fallow. With the recent deluge, a bad situation has turned worse. As a result of this soggy situation, corn yields will plummet, the USDA reports [PDF]. The decreased supplies are even more worrisome considering U.S. and European mandates for turning food crops into fuel, and rising demand for grain in Asia. The global food system had no margin for error.
In response to the rains, investors have driven up corn prices to levels never seen before. By Wednesday afternoon, corn was trading above $7 per bushel — an astonishing 75 percent rise since last June. Just three years ago, a bushel of corn fetched less than $2. The same factors have ramped up soy prices as well.
And the worst may be yet to come. Weather reports suggest that the Midwest’s wet spell may last through the month. If that happens, surviving plants will have a tough time developing deep roots, making them vulnerable to a dry spell later in the summer. If a soggy June turns into a bone-dry July and August, corn and soy prices will likely spike anew.
Hard times seem imminent. No one can envy the 10.9 percent of U.S. families who already lacked sufficient access to food as of 2006. That number will surely grow as the economy weakens. And you don’t have to be poor to feel the pinch of higher grocery bills. “You know those complaints you’ve been hearing about high food prices? They’ve just begun,” a commodity trader told The New York Times Thursday.
As the food crisis plays out, we’re likely to hear more and more pitches from agribusiness giants who promise that if we simply play by their rules, everything will be just fine. Just last week, the biotech giant Monsanto — which dominates the global seed markets for corn, soy, and cotton — announced its intention to double yields for its “core crops” by 2030, all the while reducing “by one-third the amount of key resources” required to grow them.
To do so, Monsanto and its allies are stockpiling patents for so-called “climate ready” genes that will ostensibly equip plants to withstand severe weather. “In the face of climate chaos and a deepening world food crisis, the Gene Giants are gearing up for a PR offensive to re-brand themselves as climate saviors,” writes the watchdog outfit ETC Group in a recent report. “The focus on so-called climate-ready genes is a golden opportunity to push genetically engineered crops as a silver bullet solution to climate change.”
If the current crisis has taught us one thing, it’s that food production needs to become more diversified and dispersed, not concentrated ever more tightly into fewer and fewer hands. Here’s my alternative to Monsanto’s vision: Let’s end the biofuel mandates and subsidies — currently eating up around $13 billion per year in taxpayer cash — and invest the savings in grain storage and the infrastructure required to really revive local and regional food production.
Climate change is an issue that is very rapidly forcing it’s way into homes in the US. Everyday Americans of all economic profiles are starting to see resource scarcity affect their lives. It is a shame that in a time of need, there are corporations and industries lining up to profit off of public misery.
Source: Grist
Tags: ethanol, flooding, food prices, midwest