Jolley: Talking About…Aussie-Korea FTA, PETA, Farm Bill

"We have obtained significant market advantage. Presumably (lifting the ban) will have some impact in that area. It's imperative that Australia strikes a deal with parity of access otherwise we will be placed at a clear disadvantage."
(Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, April 21, 2008)
David Inall, executive director of the Cattle Council of Australia, talking about the recent U.S./Korea agreement to lift the ban on American beef.
>PS: To remain competitive, Inall urges an Aussie/Korea free trade agreement ASAP.
>PPS: So about a year ago, did I hear someone say that when the U.S. regained access to the S. Korean market the Aussies would be sent packing?

“You are not going to market the 2009 crop the way you marketed the 2007 crop. You may never market grain that way again.”
(Source: New York Times, April 22, 2008)
Robert E. Young II, chief economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation, talking about the demise of the commodities system and the growing distrust of the C.B.O.T. way of doing business.
>PS: Here’s an outrageous thought: Will we soon be marketing corn by the barrel alongside Nigerian crude?

"Japan, the Philippines, [South] Korea, Taiwan -- they all came in with huge orders, and no matter how high prices go, they keep on buying, We have never seen anything like this before. Prices are going up more in one day than they have during entire years in the past. But no matter the price, there always seems to be a buyer. This isn't just any commodity. It is food, and people need to eat."
(Source: Washington Post, April 27, 2008)
Jeff Voge, chairman of the Kansas City Board of Trade and an independent trader, talking about the unprecedented worldwide demand for grain.
>PS: Panicked foreign buyers are stockpiling, ordering U.S. grain at up to triple normal amounts as food riots erupt in third world countries.

“As I talked and listened to people outside our industry, I realized people don’t know of the high losses we are facing with no end in sight. Everyone that is in the livestock industry is struggling with record high production costs, with feed costs at prices that we have never experienced — so collectively I am hoping we can come up with ideas that may help us through these trying times.”
(Source: Farm News, April 26, 2008)
Mitch Truebenbach, hog producer and owner of Agri Swine Alliance Inc., talking about the crisis that’s hurting the entire North American hog industry.
>PS: Let’s be honest. It really is a food vs fuel problem – the price of a barrel of crude AND the price paid by converting food crops to ethanol are twin problems that threaten world order.

“If these PETA nuts are only showering 18 times a year, we have a new reason PETA stinks.”
(Source: New York Times, April 22, 2008)
David Martosko, director of research at the Center for Consumer Freedom, talking about PETA’s nude shower stunt on Times Square.
PS: An hour long shower was supposed to persuade people to go vegetarian. All it did was bring out the spring ‘peepers’ who brought along cell phone cameras to record the silliness.

“We are disgusted by the conventional meat industry in this country, which raises animals — especially chicken and pigs — in inhumane confinement systems that cause significant environmental damage. There is every reason to change the way meat is produced, to make it more ethical, more humane.”
(Source: New York Times, April 23, 2008)
Unsigned editorial discussing PETA’s million dollar bounty for producing commercially viable test tube chicken.
>PS: Time-after-time, the New York Times proves many of their contributors still dismiss everything west of the Hudson as crude ‘fly-over country’ when the realities of the modern food delivery system don’t match their Disneyland approach to filling the grocery cart.
>PPS: Porky Pig as a slab of bacon and some country ham? Say it ain’t so! Has anybody seen Donald Duck lately?
>PPPS: Sorry, ‘we’ are mad as hell about the not so subtle inference by ‘Mr. Unsigned Editorial’ that people involved in meat production are less than ethical.

“With record farm income, now is not the time for Congress to ask other sectors of the economy to pay higher taxes in order to increase the size of government. The proposal would increase spending by at least $16 billion, masked in part by budgetary gimmicks and funded in part by additional tax revenues. I therefore call on Congress to provide our agricultural producers with the certainty to make sound business and planting decisions about this year's crop by extending current law for at least one year.”
(Source: White House press release, April 22. 2008)
G.W. Bush, President of the United States, sharing his opinion of the House and Senate’s farm bill efforts.
>PS: Mike Johanns bailed on it months ago, now Bush seems eager to hand it off to the next POTUS. Maybe they know something stinks inside the beltway?

"Allowing the current rule to remain in force could ultimately undermine the confidence of U.S. consumers and foreign customers, in markets that are proving difficult to reopen in the first place."
(Source: FoxNews.com, April 22, 2008)
J. Patrick Boyle, AMI President and CEO, explaining his group’s decision to finally get behind the ‘no-downer’ rule.
>PS: Thank you, Mr. Boyle, for leading the way on this one. The lengthy and misguided fight by various trade associations against the ban has hurt the industry’s image with consumers here and abroad.

"Japan, the Philippines, [South] Korea, Taiwan -- they all came in with huge orders, and no matter how high prices go, they keep on buying, We have never seen anything like this before. Prices are going up more in one day than they have during entire years in the past. But no matter the price, there always seems to be a buyer. This isn't just any commodity. It is food, and people need to eat."
(Source: Washington Post, April 27, 2008)
Jeff Voge, chairman of the Kansas City Board of Trade and an independent trader, talking about the unprecedented worldwide demand for grain.
>PS: Panicked foreign buyers are stockpiling, ordering U.S. grain at up to triple normal amounts as food riots erupt worldwide.

"Bulgogi Korean barbecue is like the cheeseburger in the United States. We're thrilled to get that market back."
(Source: TradingMarkets.com, April 27, 2008)
Gregg Doud, chief economist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, expressing unbridled glee at regained market access.