Corn Industry - the next tobacco??

[Arkieman]

Pretty interesting read. Pretty good ammo for the grass finished beef guys..
Seems hard to believe that the very grain that was supposed to save the world (energy-wise - Ethanol), could be the very grain that is killing us all!!

http://seekingalpha.com/article/102132-corn-and-its-industry-the-next-tobacco?source=yahoo

 

[novatech]

Yep interesting. I don't think the corn people have a heck of a lot to worry about. There simply is not enough grass to accommodate all the cattle that need to be finished. And big industry will continue paying off all the lobbyists and thus continue the process we have.
Another thing we all must remember. We are all living a lot longer than most of our ancestors.

All the campaign promises I have heard lately are nothing more than the idle promises I have listened to most of my life and pay little attention to them.

 

[Jim62]

Wow! Sounds like somebody in the corn industry stepped on that old boy's toes.

Wonder if he has any actual facts to back any of that up?

 

[Brandonm22]

"There simply is not enough grass to accommodate all the cattle that need to be finished"

I don't think many of those food nazi folks really care whether we have enough grass. Most of those folks probably consider that a smaller beef herd would be a good thing.

 

[Brandonm22]

Wow! Sounds like somebody in the corn industry stepped on that old boy's toes.

Wonder if he has any actual facts to back any of that up?

Yea to get that mad at the corn guys, all I can figure is that a combine ran over his dog.

 

[SRBeef]

Pretty interesting read. Pretty good ammo for the grass finished beef guys..
Seems hard to believe that the very grain that was supposed to save the world (energy-wise - Ethanol), could be the very grain that is killing us all!!

http://seekingalpha.com/article/102132-corn-and-its-industry-the-next-tobacco?source=yahoo

That supposedly authoritative article is so full of holes it is almost not worth replying to, but I guess it is important to point out a few. This appears to be a hedge fund article??? He is suggesting selling Deere, CNH and other stocks???? You think maybe he is short on these???

First of all - the author's primary thesis is that corn is responsible for obesity in the US. This is ridiculous and ignores a large number of complex things going on in society.

Are kids obese because of corn or because they don't play outside as much as we used to growing up. Is it corn's fault that kids sit in front of video games instead of playing outside? Is it corn's fault that US society tends to eat more fried foods like french fries at McDonalds rather than Mom's home cooked vegetables & caserole? Kids obesity is a problem but it is a complex problem and not the fault of corn.

Obviously I am on this board so I do raise beef and also corn.

Corn grain based ethanol does have subsidies - but far less than the US oil industry. Corn grain based ethanol, manufactured with newer processes and corn growing methods, does make sense from an energy balance standpoint. Ethanol does replace imported oil in a gasoline mix as well as eliminating some very hazardous gas additives it replaced.

More importantly, corn grain based ethanol keeps dollars and people in rural areas. Ethanol plants provide transparent local markets which are not subject to the vagaries of far away markets. There are towns with ethanol plants that can keep schools open, are building new houses and providing local jobs for local people. Corn ethanol bi-products such as DDG's serve useful purposes as feed and raw material for other products.

Corn can be used as a raw material for many different products. Yes much of it is used to make fructose. Is society going to stop drinking sweeten drinks? If corn is mandated out there will just be mostly imported sugar.

Economics are leading to cattle spending more time on grass, but unless the American public suddenly all turn into vegetarians, corn will continue to be one of our most important grains world wide.

That article evidently has an axe to grind somewhere and ignores a lot of facts to get there. jmho.

 

[grannysoo]

I agree that it's wrong to be feeding all of this corn to cattle.

After all, we could be making more whiskey with it! :banana: :banana: :banana:

 

[Arkieman]

Just wanted to note that I don't agree w/ the everything this article states, however I do agree w/ Brandon that it could be the logic championed by such forces as PETA too "indirectly" move toward their objective of a "vegetarian world".

I will say that I think using corn for ethanol fuel is/was the most assinine idea ever!

 

[Brandonm22]

If you think about it, if you could take grains out of the mix, chicken and turkey just about becomes a specialty meat. Raising them on pasture while the govt is releasing wolves is a recipe for disaster. The weather losses alone would be enough to triple the breakeven price. We move to grass fattening and we probably produce1/2 to 2/3s the beef (when you factor in the grain fields converted to pasture) and I think there would be a LOT of resistance to the nation's hog herd moving back to a pasture near you. Keeping the cows out of the creek is difficult.......keeping the pasture pigs from doing it would be a real challenge.

 

[grubbie]

I have another theory,....maybe a farmer slept with his wife?? Okay so I don't feed my cows corn, (if they werent getting so fat on grass, I probably would) but I "pity the fool" who tries to take a piece of corn on the cob from my hands!!!! Don't care if it does kill me. And oh yeah,....it WILL be drenched in real butter. What a bunch of crap.

 

[bandit80]

Well there is 10 minutes of my life I will never get back. That was the biggest joke with so many holes in it that I'm not real sure what to say.

 

[dun]

Well there is 10 minutes of my life I will never get back. That was the biggest joke with so many holes in it that I'm not real sure what to say.

An investor type talking about obesity is about on the same level as politicions talking about fiscal responsibility

 

[bandit80]

Well there is 10 minutes of my life I will never get back. That was the biggest joke with so many holes in it that I'm not real sure what to say.

An investor type talking about obesity is about on the same level as politicions talking about fiscal responsibility

Good point.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I agree that it's wrong to be feeding all of this corn to cattle.

After all, we could be making more whiskey with it! :banana: :banana: :banana:

I tried to tour all the distilleries in Kentucky one day. I learned a lot. One point was that in the days gone by the women stayed home to tend the still and the men went hunting. Thats what I am talkin about!!!

 

[GRTiger85]

what an idiot

 

[Onthebit]

It may be full of holes but the ethanol plant they had started to build near me has halted construction due to government pulling back funding....and the guy with the 1500 acres of corn is shivering....This is in Canada mind you so maybe not for the same reasons..............

 

[Arkieman]

Hey guys, crazier things have happened. I mean who would have thought a Muslim would be elected President of the U.S.?? Oops, was that political??

 

[wstevenl]

I don't have time to read this particular article, but I've read alot like it and I believe that the fact that MOST foods in the supermarket have corn products in them has alot to do with obesity. It's not only that it's there that is causing the FAT it's that the government subsidies make is cheap so all the cheapest foods are full of HFCS and the like. All this "junk" food is cheap so the masses of poor people buy it and get fat on it rather than eating good meat, good grains, and veggies. I think the answer for alot of this is to let the MARKET decide. We don't need to stop corn production but if it actually cost buyers what it cost the farmer to produce it and add in a profit, and the government wasn't getting so involved we wouldn't have such a problem. We produce WAY more food now than we need and this is why we are able to export so much, I don't think is so clear that more beef couldn't be produced with pasture, even if it was just half of it. No one knows how much beef we could produce on grass if much of the row crop land was converted to rotationally grazed pasture.

Open Letter To the Candidates.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magaz ... ref=slogin
This is a great article, though I don't agree with ALL of it I do agree with the overall concept of getting subsidies out of the mix and encouraging more grassfed meats and other non-processed foods be eaten. I just think that getting rid of subsidies would be enough encouragement, we don't need Public Service Announcements.

 

[bandit80]

Taken directly from the article.

"Subsidized grain also meant animals being fed corn at feedlots that could buy it cheaply, below grower cost, so beef cattle, poultry, swine, and dairy cows could all be fattened at animal feedlots, instead of on range and pasture grasses. This factory feeding produced animals diseased by fecal bacteria, and deprived of all manner of nutrition, but these problems were addressed by a big animal antibiotic and vitamin industry."

If all of our beef was finished on grass, the producer would need so much more money per head because of the longer finishing time. Then beef would be more expensive, and people would probably buy less of it.

Corn demand has finally increased enough that the government subsidies to corn farmers are nowhere near what they used to be. Part of this increased demand is ethanol, right or wrong. There hasn't been any LDP payments to corn farmers for a couple of years now.

I'm not sure what we are doing now is right, but doing the exact opposite wouldn't be right either.

 

[wstevenl]

Grass finishing takes more TIME but shouldn't it take less inputs and therefore be similar in cost? At least, it wouldn't be the same as finishing a steer on grain for longer.