Record-High Food Prices? Or Just Better Than Record Lows?

Reporters and politicians are making frequent references to high food prices – some going so far as to suggest prices are nearing record levels. But for the farmers and peasants who produce the world’s food, prices are nowhere near record highs. In fact, what is currently happening to corn, beans, rice, or wheat prices would

Agriculture Gets Low Budget Profile

With commodity prices soaring and the federal government negotiating with the provinces on a new version of Growing Forward, no one expects agriculture to rate much more than mention in passing in the March 22 budget. A recent Agriculture Canada forecast predicted generally rosy conditions for most sectors of Canadian agriculture going forward as food


Syngenta To Go Ahead With Ethanol-Specific Corn

Amonth after receivi ng regulatory approva l , Swiss agricultural company Syngenta is starting to sign up U.S. farmers to grow its new biotech corn seed aimed at ethanol production, but expects to enrol fewer than 20,000 acres in a contracted growing arrangement this spring, a top company executive said Mar. 16. Syngenta is meeting



Hog Producers Ring Alarm Over Possible Feed Shortages

North America’s pork producers have issued a dire warning about a looming continental feed grain shortage that may jeopardize meat supplies and animal welfare in the coming year. Leaders of the Canadian Pork Council, the U.S. National Pork Producers Council and the Confederacion de Porcicultores Mexicanos last week issued an urgent call for government action

Cheap Food Versus Expensive Oil

You can’t have cheap food and expensive oil. It just doesn’t work. For hundreds of millions of people who earn only a dollar or two a day, increasing prices for staple foods like grains, pulses, rice and cooking oil is a big deal. Canadians spend only about 11 per cent of their disposable income on


Libya Turmoil Could Hurt Regional Food Security — UN

The United Nations expressed serious concern March 11 about the impact of the Libyan uprising on food security across North Africa because of the region’s dependency on cereal imports. “The ongoing crisis will likely have a significant impact on food security in Libya and in nearby crisis-affected areas,” the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said

Corn Stocks To Rise If Ethanol Tax Credit Cut

Stockpiles of U.S. corn would begin to rebuild if Congress allows tax credits for ethanol to expire at the end of the year, a key group of economists at the University of Missouri said March 7. The university’s Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, or FAPRI, forecast corn stocks at the end of the 2011-12


Biofuels Here To Stay

Biofuels represent the only way to significantly reduce carbon emissions in road transport fuel and are likely to account for at least 12 per cent of supply by 2030, an official with oil giant BP said March 2. “There is no other alternative that I can really subscribe to in terms of decarbonizing road transport,”

China’s Top Feed Firm Wants Access To DDGS

China’s largest animal feed producer, New Hope Group, called on the government to stop its antidumping investigation against exports of U.S. DDGS, a byproduct of corn-based ethanol used to substitute corn by feed mills. “The investigation has not consulted the feed industry and only represents the interests of some ethanol producers,” Liu Yonghao, chairman of