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!
