The ripple effect of corn’s being funneled to ethanol production instead of turkey feed has forced at least four huge turkey-processing plants to shut down this year, the government says.
Things will turn bleaker after the holidays, when the industry nationwide will reduce production dramatically, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
That’s bad news for U.S. consumers. In 2007, the average American ate 17.5 pounds of turkey, according to the National Turkey Federation.
And this could be the last holiday season for some processors.
Holiday turkeys enjoy a daily feast of corn and soybeans to plump them up just in time for the table. But even soybeans have fallen prey to the push for ethanol.
Soybean production is down in response to demand for corn to make ethanol, which also drives up soybean prices, the USDA says.
SOURCE: Read more here
UPDATE:::Economy Shifts, and the Ethanol Industry Reels
As producers of ethanol navigate a triple whammy of falling prices for their product, credit woes and volatile costs for the corn from which ethanol is made, an economic version of “Survivor” is playing out in the industry.
Last week, VeraSun, one of the nation’s largest ethanol producers, announced that it had filed for bankruptcy protection after its bets on the price of corn turned out to be wrong — and costly.
Several other small producers have filed for bankruptcy this year, and construction plans for several Midwestern ethanol plants have been postponed or shelved. Shares in the handful of publicly owned ethanol companies have mostly been slumping all year. Aventine Renewable Energy and Pacific Ethanol, for instance, have both lost more than 80 percent of their value since the beginning of the year.
While producers pin their hopes on rising government mandates for the use of ethanol, analysts who follow the industry voice concerns that more companies could go under. They expect a wave of consolidation to sweep the ethanol business once the credit crisis eases.
Ian Horowitz, an analyst with Soleil Securities, said that he was particularly worried about BioFuel Energy, an ethanol maker. The company, based in Denver, is low on cash and has had problems similar to VeraSun’s, losing $46 million when commodity-price hedges turned out badly.
ethanol companies got a rude shock: corn prices hit record highs this summer after the Midwestern floods. That made ethanol more expensive to produce. Fearing that prices would go even higher, some producers — including VeraSun, BioFuel Energy and Glacial Lakes Energy, a South Dakota farmers cooperative — entered into contracts intended to protect them if corn prices rose.
“We were hearing $8, $9, $10” a bushel, said Jim Seurer, the interim chief executive of Glacial Lakes. “We sought protection from that.”
But after the fields dried and it became clear the nation would have a good corn harvest, the market turned again. Companies that had locked in around $7 and above were stuck watching corn fall to $4 a bushel.
In a statement last month, Mr. Seurer’s company reported “significant margin and hedging losses due to the sharp downturn in the price of corn.”
ethanol companies got a rude shock: corn prices hit record highs this summer after the Midwestern floods. That made ethanol more expensive to produce. Fearing that prices would go even higher, some producers — including VeraSun, BioFuel Energy and Glacial Lakes Energy, a South Dakota farmers cooperative — entered into contracts intended to protect them if corn prices rose.
“We were hearing $8, $9, $10” a bushel, said Jim Seurer, the interim chief executive of Glacial Lakes. “We sought protection from that.”
But after the fields dried and it became clear the nation would have a good corn harvest, the market turned again. Companies that had locked in around $7 and above were stuck watching corn fall to $4 a bushel.
In a statement last month, Mr. Seurer’s company reported “significant margin and hedging losses due to the sharp downturn in the price of corn.”
SOURCE: The New York Times
Alittle late now for the corn prices to go down, Everything has dropped in prices because people don’t have the money to buy with! Even gas at the pumps is down below $2.00 ! Plus its looks as if less corn was being used for ethanol this last year which could of had alot of effect on corn prices!
No way to get around it, using corn for fuel is using food that childrens around the World needs to keep from going hungry. Obama does not want to drill for more oil and keep sending money that we need here to people that hate us and at the same time Obama plans for corn for Ethanol is taken food from the mouths of the poor around the World. Get ready people for a tough 4 years and have a happy Thanksgiving Obama style, that is if you can afford it!
Yes this is what that turkey look like before it was killed so that you city people could enjoy on Thanksgiving Day along with us good ole country people. Just goes to show that the bloggers that are trashing Sarah Palin for having a interview while turkeys were being killed for Thanksgiving will not keep you city people from eating turkey I would bet. No different than a hunter standing over a BIG ELK or DEER that he/she just killed and bragging to a News Reporter about the great kill.
Links:
Trashing Sarah Palin
(1) Palin Pardons a Turkey in the Name of “Peace and Harmony.” Let the Slaughter Begin!
I guess people at CNN does not eat turkey on Thanksgiving Day!
(1a) Turkey Gate – The Fiasco That Wouldn’t Die.
What about the vast majority of Americans who never get closer to their meat than the supermarket?What about small children who love animals that happen to be watching the 5:00 local news?
goodtimepolitics asking…Is this the same vast majority of Americans who buy little dyed chicks and rabbits for their 3 year old for Easter, that kill them a few days later? Is this the same vast majority that don’t really know what they’re puting in their mouths for food? I’m sure that Sarah Palin will enjoy the spotlight as long as the stupid far left nuts wants to keep it shining and if this is the best trashing that the left can do they need to go back to government assisted schooling like the Obama family did on tax payers money! If you don’t like killing of animals for food then you better stop visiting McDonald, quit eating steak, no pork chops or fish for you far left nuts!
Thanks ginnypub for posting Gov. Palin’s follow-up for Turkey-gate
She believes corn is food and oil is fuel. She worships Christ, not Black separatist “theology”. She doesn’t believe abortion is a woman’s “health issue”. She believes in the Constitution, not the Communist Manifesto. She believes the U.S. Military should stay a fighting force of warriors, not an extension of the U.N. for transportation of humanitarian aid.
(1b) Gallup Asks About Palin. 2 Out of 10 Republicans Need to Detox.
Sarah Palin the governor of the largest state in the Union is doing good for herself and getting well known across America, she will have no problem come 2012 from not being known by her first name! The Liberal Democrats are still worried about her climb to the top of the Republican party! Go Palin Go!
(2) Palin interview causes stir
(3) Sarah Palin Weight Loss Plan – Laugh Your Ass Off – Then You Can Eat More Turkey
(4) Palin’s Turkey of an Interview
Make sure you back away from that turkey dinner on Thanksgiving Day, remember someone had to kill it.
(5) Sarah Palin & The Turkey Genocide
Yet another city person that does not understand that animals they eat has to be killed first by someone! Thanks for showing people where you far left nuts are coming from!
33 responses so far ↓
Terra // November 22, 2008 at 4:22 AM
I don’t want to be to critical, because you are after all upset for some things I half way agree with. There is no shame in the turkey thing, although, Palin could have asked for the shot to be made at an angle so that those sensitive to it wouldn’t have seen the killing. That was in my opinion thrown way out of proportion. I am an animal lover, I give to humane societies when I can, but I am still an eater or meat. (See you can be for animals, but not all weird about it.)
I am sure that you are right about the assessment of corn prices being driven up, and the results. However, to be fair Obama hasn’t done anything yet. Any turkey problems we have are for the current legislation (and past) not the future legislation.
goodtimepolitics // November 22, 2008 at 4:41 AM
I live in the country, we have never turned our head away from the table while dad used that big turkey knife to cut up that good eating, and we never turned our head away while dad shot the turkey! I guess it must be ok for some to do things that they think is wrong as long as they say or think they’re not doing it! Terra don’t you think maybe the reporter should have been the one using alittle caution of what he/she was shooting with the camera? Obama has an interest in Corn for Ethanol and has been pushing it from the beginning so don’t tell me that he does not have anything to do with it! Thanks anyways for the comment even if I don’t agree!
Terra // November 22, 2008 at 4:48 AM
As for the camera man, according to someone (I don’t keep tabs), the camera man asked if she would like the angle different and she didn’t want it to be different. True or not I don’t know. But food for thought.
As for the turkey killing, well I am kind of squeamish. I eat them, but if I had to kill them to eat them, I would have to be a vegetarian. I am thrilled it doesn’t work that way.
I didn’t say that Obama doesn’t have an interest in it, I said he didn’t cause the problem as it is now. Heck and to be fair all the hams people eat have to contribute also. There are more than a couple of factors to put in.
goodtimepolitics // November 22, 2008 at 4:57 AM
Tell me Terra what would be the different if say a politician was to go hunting and shooting ducks while reporters are filming him or her? Many are hunters.
As far as Obama having something to do with Corn for Ethanol I suggest you do take alittle time and research his stand on the issue. Many that he has picked to be in his admin has lobbyed for Corn to Ethanol and Obama has attain money for its purpose! Chis Dodd and others are into it to their necks! Don’t take my word, do some checking around.
Terra // November 22, 2008 at 5:06 AM
LOL, I wouldn’t watch that hunting either. I mentioned in the beginning that I thought it was hyped up. I don’t agree with the negative press on that one period. In addition to that view, it would have been easy to avoid it. On a side note: I am sure she just didn’t think of the people that are sensitive, or didn’t realize they were actually doing it in the background. I do not “blame” her for it exactly. However, I don’t blame those that are sensitive to it for being offended either…
I have checked him out about all the issues that are important to me, no worries. I am more interested in the electric car ideas myself. Anyway, once again I didn’t deny he has interest in it, nor do I deny he has plans, nor even that he might have voted for it (don’t know). I deny that he is the person that should be blamed at this time…
goodtimepolitics // November 22, 2008 at 5:29 AM
I know where you’re coming from, cause my wife could not eat a animal that she watch being killed, now on the other hand she loves turkey and ham for Thanksgiving! Its just wrong to trash someone like Palin for such a stupid reason. Obama is a democrat and they raised the fed min wages and that is why the prices of turkey is much higher this year the producers are saying, so yes Obama has his little bitty hands in the cause!
Now I hope that all those people out there that can not eat a turkey thats been killed will push away from the table and lose a pound or two, it would do us all good!
Terra // November 22, 2008 at 5:37 AM
Fair enough… Fair enough…
I give that he most likely did have his hands in raising minimum wage (again that isn’t one of those things that interested me.) LOL, I am sure that if we want to be fair though, most likely BOTH sides had a hand in that to some degree.
Generally I don’t like saying horrible things about one side of that stuff, as both sides will do things that we don’t agree with. A republican isn’t going to always agree with other republicans on all issues, and all democrats aren’t going to always agree with all other democrats on all issues. So rather than look that those sides it is better to be specific about what we don’t like.
As for that pound or two well I agree with that too… But I am totally planning on adding a pound or two ROFL
curly // November 22, 2008 at 6:17 AM
Looking on from the other side of the pond in the UK, I have to say that I have never been able to take this woman seriously, but she has been very entertaining!
Was it a case of turkeys actually voting for Christmas?
goodtimepolitics // November 22, 2008 at 6:29 AM
You must be alittle confused curly, no Palin isn’t in charge of the turkeys and the media is trying to make a big deal out of the American way of life. People will take Sarah Palin serious come 4 years from now. And by the way Aaskans are not poor people as you think!
ginnypub // November 23, 2008 at 6:12 PM
EXCELLENT POST! I’ve been yakking forever about collateral damage (starving children, inflation, etc.) from the half-wit left’s insistence on classifying food as fuel; but you do a much better job than me. Glad I found your blog and now I’m going to get busy reading everything else you’ve written.
goodtimepolitics // November 24, 2008 at 12:53 AM
Thanks ginnypub, yes they will tell you that field corn isn’t used for food, well the far left liberals are wrong about that, my son works at a mill where the farmers bring their field corn and some goes for animal feed, some goes for corn for oil and then some goes for that corn mill that we cook for cornbread. Corn has went in price from $3.00 to $8.00 a bushel so food prices will rise.
We nee to drill offshore for oil now! Thanks again ginnypub and come back often!
Mike // November 24, 2008 at 10:21 AM
Guess what? Corn is back to $3.25 or so in the countryside. If you want to complain about high food prices, there are other places to look.
lukemcgook // November 24, 2008 at 11:02 AM
Mike, don’t understand. Are you saying that a lower corn price won’t affect the price of groceries? Or are you saying that the price of corn was steady while food prices were rising?
goodtimepolitics // November 24, 2008 at 11:28 AM
Check out the update and it will explain whats going on! Its not sounding to good!!
Mike // November 24, 2008 at 11:39 AM
Many people were (and are) trying to blame corn for higher food prices – but they fail to mention that corn prices have been falling since June and are now lower than they were a year ago at this time.
Despite this, ethanol production has expanded, livestock has been fed and corn exports set a record in 2008.
Many other things were at play in the food sector – high energy costs, for one (they have also retreated). But corn ethanol was not a major factor, and corn prices themselves play a very minor role in food products and prices.
IF CORN prices were tied so closely to food prices, as some argue, then food prices should have began falling eight or more weeks ago.
As for the turkey industry, specifically, as referenced early in the post on this page, it certainly did face high corn prices for a period this year. However, the industry has also simply produced too many turkeys following several good years. But how many industries will blame themselves for over producing when they can conveniently point fingers at someone else.
lukemcgook // November 24, 2008 at 11:40 AM
Thanks. Key here is
****
” ‘The future of the industry looks very bright,’ said Ronald H. Miller, president and chief executive of Aventine, citing the rising federal quotas for producing ethanol.”
****
It’s an industry that wouldn’t exist without gummint mandates. As the global warming silliness unravels, we’ve got a chance to rescind the quotas. I’m gonna have some more corn flakes!
lukemcgook // November 24, 2008 at 11:53 AM
Mike, what you’re saying is that lower corn prices now made feeding poultry six months ago less expensive. This, to my mind, violates certain basic concepts of space and time.
Also, when has over-production ever raised prices?
goodtimepolitics // November 24, 2008 at 11:58 AM
Yes corn flakes it is until they start back using more corn for fuel…and then the prices will jump back to $10.00 a bushel of corn and those corn flakes will cost a bundle per flake. People have no jobs and no money and so yes the prices are going down and they still can not afford to eat corn anymore! I will have to dig the old shotgun out and go coon hunting, well that is until little wet behind the ears Obama boy takes my guns or tries to! Coon meat stew is starting to sound good about now!
lukemcgook // November 24, 2008 at 12:05 PM
Be of good cheer. I think green policies in general and the left’s bullying, fantasy-backed green policies in particular, are in for some radical revisions. As the word on global warming gets around, people are going to start saying: “Gimme my cornflakes! And drill me some more oil while you’re at it.”
Mike // November 24, 2008 at 1:05 PM
The turkey industry shot itself in the foot by producing too many turkeys, which pressured turkey prices and hurt their bottom line. Did high corn prices six months ago play a part? Sure! But those high prices had little to do with ethanol. If they did, corn prices would still be high. (Higher, actually, because ethanol production has expanded, as in they ARE using more corn for ethanol now than six months ago!)
But if you want to talk corn flakes, you’ll be happy to know it costs more to make the box and then deliver that box to your store then the corn that’s in them. Maybe you can eat cardboard and diesel if you object to the high price of the 4 cents worth of corn in the box.
lukemcgook // November 24, 2008 at 1:24 PM
Mike, sorry, but you’re still not making any sense. “Over-production” means turkey prices should be *lower* this year, unless something else is going on. So what accounts for the pricey turkeys?
And no one’s claimed that ethanol use *by itself* determines the price of corn. What is hard to deny is that, were it not for the artificial, government-mandated demand for ethanol, feed corn and poultry prices would be lower than they otherwise would be. That’s the main point here: whatever the price of corn, it is higher because of the ethanol quotas. As for turkey prices, it’s hard for me to figure what else could account for the rise, if not the price of feed. Suggestions? Processing costs up, due to energy costs or immigration raids?
controller333 // November 24, 2008 at 1:32 PM
Corn is used to feed people and animals that are used for food and then we use it fuel will never work. It takes to much corn to make a gallon of ethanol. The price of all foods will go up because of it.
lukemcgook // November 24, 2008 at 1:41 PM
controller, exactly right. Even if some other factor accounts for most of the turkey-shock this year, even if turkey producers are going out of business for reasons unrelated to feed prices, even if more corn than ever is being planted, even if corn prices are trending downward lately, the fact remains that food prices are higher because the government forces refiners to put corn juice in the gas. Simple.
Terra // November 24, 2008 at 6:13 PM
It is my totally biased thought, based on what I have been told and have NEVER took the time to look up, that the problem with using corn based fuel is much more expensive to make and such… Do you have an idea on that one as a whole?
goodtimepolitics // November 24, 2008 at 6:51 PM
April 4, 2008
While corn growers are reaping record profits, US consumers can expect even higher grocery bills – especially for meat and pork – as livestock producers are forced to pass on higher animal feed costs in addition to thinning their herd size.
In addition, corn and corn syrup are used in an array of products, meaning the price of everything from candy to soft drinks will eventually go up, analysts say. It’s the latest dose of bad news for US consumers, who are already struggling with higher food costs from record increases in the price of wheat, soybeans, and other agriculture products.
Another loser in higher corn costs is ethanol producers, who are struggling to squeeze out gains as corn’s record-setting run outpaces the price of ethanol, currently at around $2.50 a gallon.
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/04/04/corn_pops_to_record_6_per_bushel/
I heard that it takes 2 bushels of corn to make one gallon of ethanol and if thats true with corn prices at $6.00 a bushel would mean that a gallon of ethanol would cost $12.00 of corn not counting all the work that goes into distilling it! It has to be heated to a hard boil which turns to steam and then re-cooled back to a liquid state! When I was young I help run a moonshine still and it took alot of corn and alot of wood to make a gallon of moonshine!
goodtimepolitics // November 24, 2008 at 7:18 PM
Oh and to add to my comment above: Obama has continued to back the $33bn spent by the federal government every year to subsidise ethanol at the pump.
This goes to show that if our tax money wasn’t paying for the production of ethanol from corn that the cost per gallon at the pump could be as high as $20.00 a gallon! Remember two bushels of corn was $6.00 so costing $12.00 in corn alone per gallon then the cost of production added to that! We can not afford ethanol!
jlv0628 // November 25, 2008 at 1:47 PM
So where on my post does it say that I am against killing turkeys? Or that I don’t realize the animals I eat need to be killed?
Certainly before you trash one of my posts you should…you know “read” it.
goodtimepolitics // November 25, 2008 at 2:04 PM
Trashing Gov. Palin because she was where they kill turkeys just don’t get it! How about the hunters that are cutting up their kill and talking to TV news reporters at the same time? What wrong with that? Oh and yes there is many politicians that hunt and kill animals! City people rather eat ham out of a can because they don’t seem to know that it once was killed!
jlv0628 // November 25, 2008 at 2:35 PM
See, I am trashing Palin because she is conducting an interview in front of a guy who is covered in blood and killing turkeys on TV.
I personally can take it, I don’t mind. I hunt and fish often, and killed my share of pigs, as it is a popular meal to cook down here in Miami. But my point is that it doesn’t look good conducting an interview (of a polictician) in front of that type of scene. I am not saying don’t kill turkeys, I am not saying that turkeys shouldn’t be killed to be eaten. Drop that asanine “city folk, country folk” nonsense for a second and think about it.
goodtimepolitics // November 25, 2008 at 2:52 PM
You can use that for an excuse to trash her if you like! There isn’t anything wrong with what she did! When we killed hogs the whole family helped along with alot of friends and yes even the news people would show up and take pictures! There is nothing wrong with being truthful, and the truth is that Turkeys and other animals are killed daily for food! Why hide it, it does not make it go away! You people are hanging on anything and everything she says or do to trash the lady! And you elected a president that does not know how many States are in the Union, a Vice President that don’t know when TV was invented. Keep up the bashing and it will only drive this nice lady to the top of the Republican Party!
jlv0628 // November 25, 2008 at 3:13 PM
I don’t think it looks very good. Giving a speech while some one is slaughtering a turkey behind her. I happen to know people, on both sides who thought that was a little much. Again, I am not debating whether it is wrong to kill an animal cause I am not a hypocrite. On that we agree.
And I gotta say, it’s not very hard to trash Sarah Palin. If this nice lady is at the top of the Republican party come 2012…prepare for a democratic majority for a very long time.
I like John McCain very much, the man’s reputation speaks for itself. And he almost had my vote if it wasn’t for the fact that the GOP shoved this woman at him to make up for his moderate stance as a Republican. They passed up some truly adequate, competent Republicans that would have served the party much better, and been a truly better running mate than Sarah Palin.
goodtimepolitics // November 25, 2008 at 5:34 PM
Why hide the killing of animals for food? Do you think if you don’t see the killing that it don’t happen? Even the young kids go to the slaugther house when their dad hauls the hogs to be killed for their food! But I guess that some people think if you don’t see it then it don’t happen! It still an excuse to trash Palin and even now the conservative base is seeing that whats happening! People should look at their own life styles before trashing Sarah Palin! Most people down here in the lower 48 would not last 6 months in Alaska!
Group Plans Ads to Counter Palin Critics, some who tried to smear and destroy her! « Goodtimepolitics // November 25, 2008 at 8:30 PM
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