Corn shortage predicted by 2008
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Sat, 12 Aug 2006 10:08:00 GMT |
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Darya Zarin |
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WASHINGTON - Analysts in United States have cautioned that unless corn planting is expanded drastically, the country could be facing corn shortage by as early as 2008.
Even as the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated the first forecast of the fall harvest of the corn crop to be at 10.98 billion bushels, which is the third biggest harvest ever, the amount of corn consumed by U.S. ethanol manufacturers, food makers and livestock feeders could well lead to the corn stockpiles being depleted within two years.
Mark McMinimy, analyst at Stanford Washington Research, said, "There's definitely need for more corn. Especially with the ethanol industry growing bigger and hungrier each year".
Analysts say that even if the Agriculture Department's prediction turns out to be right, it will only postpone the corn supply crisis by a year. They estimate that around 85 million acres of corn should be planted next year, as they would need an extra 800 million to 900 million bushels of corn in 2007.
As per the current consumption rates, analysts predict that stockpiles would go down by nearly 40 percent to 1.23 billion bushels by next fall. With the oil price increasing every week, motorists in US have been turning to ethanol, which is produced from renewable resources such as corn, sugar and soybeans. US ethanol consumes as much as 2.15 billion bushels of corn, which is about 18 percent of the total crop produced.
Copyright,
respective author or news agency
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No shortage of corn
By:
michael ,
Thu, 24 Aug 2006 23:45:15 GMT
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As long as politicians and lawyers dominate our airwaves and institutions there will be no shortage of corn...
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Hemp != cannibis
By:
Dante ,
Wed, 23 Aug 2006 23:36:31 GMT
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Planting hemp does not equat to growing pot. Only specific varieties grow the green sticky that contains THB. Until the big oil, big petrochemical, big pharma, and big agro companies get pushed out of the way in the interest of saving the planet, we will never be allowed to grow hemp for fuel, clothing, or any of its other many uses. It beats corn by far, and it doesn't punish the land as much as corn.
We the people must start putting intense pressure on our federal representatives now to stop listening to the big corporations that would keep us from developing new fuel sources, and listen to their consciences. Most of them have children and grandchildren. If we don't start fixing things NOW, those grandchildren won't have much of a world to live in, thanks to us and our parents and grandparents.
In addition, all of us can do simple, low-tech things at home now to save energy, like line drying clothes, using high-efficiency lighting only when it's needed, carpooling and taking mass transit, or at the very least using a very efficient car or motorcycle to get to work. I get 50MPG, how much do you get?
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Yes to Hemp
By:
Budley ,
Thu, 17 Aug 2006 22:01:44 GMT
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Hemp is 77% cellulose. Can be mixed with molasses for animal feed. Oils from hemp make fine resins and lacquers. Who stands in the way of Hemp? Chemical manufacturer DuPont, for one. In Delaware, the saying goes, 'If your name is DuPont, you get what you want'. Who else opposes hemp? Aids creator Merck and Big Pharma who would rather sell you Vioxx, a known killer. The Partnership For A Drug-Free America, who gave us such scientific drivel as, 'this is your brain on drugs' showing fried eggs in a pan, had a commercial showing alleged electro-encephalograms of a normal 14 year-old and the same boy who had just smoked cannabis. A clinical researcher watching the commercial thought the second EEG looked odd. He taped the commercial, freeze-framed the EEG and analyzed it. Turns out it was the EEG of a rabbit. So much for corporate-funded science.
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ethanol/fuel/environment/etc
By:
Bert ,
Thu, 17 Aug 2006 17:50:38 GMT
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Not one mention of CONservation. If you don't burn it, you don't need more of it or so much of it. Can YOU take your foot off the gas pedal, or more to the point, learn to live a little bit more without the car?
This is about practicality, and common sense. If people are really 'earth first' or whatever, then why don't they write to the fast food companies to charge less for people to eat INside the restaurant instead of using the drive-through?
Little stuff like that adds up to big savings,
driving habits, taking care of your car, tires and so forth, driving 5MPH slower, and as far as ethanol goes, there's a little change in engine tuning to make good use of the ethanol component in the fuel. It's certainly an improvement over MTBE, and the nice thing about ethanol-combined fuels is that they'll burn OK in higher-compression engines. The new 4-cylinders don't have high compression like the old 8's.
Also, there's other things besides ethanol, bio-diesel for example, and NO discussion about digesting back trash plastics to make fuel. There's ways to skin this rat so as to get what you need for fuel, and still not end up having to give billions of dollars to other countries that don't like the USA. A little lateral thinking is in order, humble ideas such as car-pooling, even (shudder) MASS TRANSIT...we're going to need conveyances of some kind, and since college students have already figured out how to run a car off BS, we've got perpetual energy! LOL
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wood to ethanol
By:
Hans Posselt, Ph.D. ,
Thu, 17 Aug 2006 13:57:03 GMT
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Using wood cellulose to convert to ethanol is much better considering the dying species like ash, elm and recently aspen. There is no need for fertilizers, but the more important fact is that there will be no net release of carbon dioxide since the trees are living on CO2. Google: ethanol, wood has interesting data and reports
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Ethanol reduces fuel economy
By:
Steven ,
Wed, 16 Aug 2006 23:00:04 GMT
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The sticker on the fuel pump states "Contains 10% Ethanol"
My gas milage reflects a 15% drop in fuel economy.
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Future Food Supply
By:
Ernest ,
Wed, 16 Aug 2006 22:18:06 GMT
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Once farmers were advised to plant all wheat and after harvest, oops, olympic boycot and farm owners lost their farms. Now more and more corn for ethanol that we can't eat with the world afloat in oil. Mad cow stems beef supply, bird flu stops poultry supply, swine flu contaminates the pigs, no grain for bread because of over production of corn, water supply curtailed with stream, river and lake buffer zones, nation in debt and unable to purchase foreign food production, starvation abound. It's the German model of the 20's and 30's. Americans are boneheads to the last man.
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Manufactured Fear
By:
Ken Brodeur ,
Wed, 16 Aug 2006 21:33:32 GMT
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There is no problem here! Legalize hemp for fuel (ethanol) clothing (stronger than cotton) food source (hemp pods are rich in protein), the easiest plant in the world to grow and it can grow anywhere plant life grows medicine, and yes even for FUN! And there is the problem, large institutional interests could not control it (Cotton industry, chemical industry, food industry, etc)
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lets see some proof
By:
Steve Zackall ,
Wed, 16 Aug 2006 18:52:47 GMT
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Where are the links to these analyst reports?
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Government foresight
By:
Joe Bojarski ,
Wed, 16 Aug 2006 18:25:52 GMT
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As usual, astounding government foresight in bringing in laws that
1] don't help what they're purported to help and
2] cause havoc elsewhere
Bunch of idiots need to all be thrown out.
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