Talking about...Corn, ethanol, farm bill, Korea, YouTube

"If you're going to compare corn prices today with past years, you've got to allow for inflation," he explains. "For example, in mid-1984, corn at the farm gate sold for $3.05 in Iowa – but it would take $6.27 in today's dollars to equal that. In 1981, Iowa corn sold as high as $3.21 per bushel, which would be $7.98 today."
(Source: Wallaces Farmer, April 14, 2008)
Julius Schaaf, chair of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, refuting claims about "record" corn prices.

“Ethanol is the one thing we can do something about. It’s about the only lever we have to pull, but none of the politicians have the courage to pull the lever.”
(Source: New York Times, April 15, 2008)
C. Ford Runge, an economist at the University of Minnesota, saying there was little that could be done to mitigate the effect of droughts and the growing appetite for protein in developing countries but backing off the push to produce more ethanol would help.

"We simply have an inability for the House and Senate to agree on what a farm bill would encompass."
(Source: The Chicago Daily Herald)
Ed Schafer, USDA Secretary talking to a group of Illinois farmers at an Elgin farm.

"There's no progress at all and the meeting is going nowhere at the moment because the two sides are so different in terms of what they are asking of each other."
(Source: Reuters, April 14, 2008)
Min Dong-seok, Korea’s deputy farm minister, telling reporters that an open marketplace for U.S. beef is still a long way off.

"This is an operation targeting specific individuals who are suspected of engaging in identity theft. Pilgrim's Pride cooperated fully with our execution of today's operation."
(Source: The Dallas Morning News, April 16, 2008)
Carl Rusnok, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, talking about the raid on five Pilgrim’s Pride plants that netted about 400 arrests.
>PS: Cooperated fully? Where have I heard that before?
>PPS: Let’s hope Pilgrim’s Pride hasn’t been ‘Swift’ boated here.

"We've gone, I think, too far. The government should let the free market decide if our food should be used for fuel or food. If it should be used for fuel, and the public wants fuel more than they want food, the market will decide."
(Source: Minnesota Public Radio, April 16, 2008)
Bob Taubert, Minnesota hog famer, saying the government should let a free market decide how corn should be used.
>PS: Hog farmers say they’re losing up to $30 per animal due to the artificially high price of corn.

"We are launching this YouTube Channel with a three-part video that features Dr. Temple Grandin and other members of our Animal Welfare Committee. We will soon add new videos on other timely topics so that we can enhance our relationship with the 95 percent of Americans who enjoy our products."
(Source: Meatingplace.com, April 18, 2008)
J. Patrick Boyle, CEO of the American Meat Institute, announcing a new communications initiative during his testimony at a House hearing.
>PS: At last, the meat industry has a vehicle that will allow it to go nose-to-nose with its critics.
>PPS: They’ve given us a few bloody noses recently, can we return the favor?