Feeding cars rather than earthlife is a sin

[shock]

FEEDING CARS RATHER THAN EARTHLIFE IS A SIN
================================

"Drought sparks food vs. fuel debate
TheOmahaChannel.com
7/20/2012 1217 AM ET

NBCNews.com

"The worst drought in decades is fueling a 50 percent surge in corn prices and a fierce debate on whether we should be using corn for food or fuel.


Under the Clean Air Act signed into law in 2007, at least 10 percent of gasoline needs to be blended with ethanol.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture expects nearly 40 percent of this year’s total corn crop to go to the ethanol industry. But that’s a tough number for the beef industry to swallow.

Green Plains Renewable Energy puts out 65 million gallons of ethanol each year. That takes 23 million bushels of corn to make, and that ingredient is threatened by the drought.

***

A 50 percent surge in corn prices is not only hurting some ethanol producers’ bottom lines, but it’s giving critics of a federal mandate some fuel.


The mandate requires some corn to be used for ethanol production, and the cattle industry says that’s unfair.


***

Becker said his company has billions of corn bushels already in storage, and in order to lower or completely cut the mandate, the government would have to prove ethanol is the problem.


***

The secretary of agriculture said Wednesday that ethanol demand is not the problem right now.

The drought's effect on the cost of fuel is not significant right now. Experts said the rising cost of ethanol could cause gas prices to jump about 4 cents per gallon.""


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FEEDING CARS RATHER THAN EARTHLIFE IS A SIN
but don't mention that to either Romney or Obama

---or to the hungry people of a world
that doesn't have much use for us
anyway.

 

[GuyPinestra]

The ethanol mandate is stupid.

Mandates are stupid, period.

 

[waltky]

Granny says buy grain futures - corn, wheat an' soybean prices gonna rise...

Speculating on Drought
7/24/12 --- Investors are ghoulish. We constantly speculate on the misfortune of others. When people are dying in Libya or Bahrain, we speculate on the price of oil. When workers are laid off in China we speculate on toys and iPods. When they riot in Greece we speculate on the euro.

Well, now our people are suffering. A historic drought has hit Midwestern farmers hard, as the Des Moines Register reports. This is a global phenomenon that's pushing up prices in India, as Reuters reports, and causing violent strikes in Indonesia, according to Bernama. Traders are expecting another reduction in crop estimates this week -- maybe not as bad as in past weeks, but bad enough. And if you're expecting supply help from Russia, don't. The news, as the Examiner notes, is just as bad in their grain belts as in ours.

Care to speculate? All this bad news could do wonders for your portfolio. The game is already on. Fertilizer prices are rising, as are stocks in fertilizer companies like Potash(POT_) and Agrium(AGU_). The two commodities are closely linked, according to the Toronto Globe & Mail. On the other hand, companies in the business of animal protein are sells, like Smithfield Foods(SFD_) and Hormel(HRL_). You might expect less selling pressure on Tyson Foods(TSN_), because chicken takes less grain to produce than pork or beef. But no luck, Tyson bought pork producer IBP a decade ago.

Here are two other ways to play this:

Buy McDonald's(MCD_). The prices paid by McDonald's will rise significantly, but so will the prices consumers pay. As food prices rise, Americans traditionally trade down. Instead of steak, we go for hamburger. When the impact of currency fluctuations are taken out, the company's most recent "earnings miss" actually turns out to be in line with expectations at $1.39/share, as Business Insider notes. McDonald's has a steady profit margin of 20%, a steady operating margin of nearer to 30%. The balance sheet shows as much cash as a typical quarter shows gross profit, so it can handle the shocks that a global company takes.

Source