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| My thoughts run parallel to Ray’s. I recall buying a substantial part of the year’s corn purchases below $1.00 per bushel-in fact in during 70 of the last 100 years corn has gravitated annually around the dollar a bushel mark.
Between 1968-1974 the beef business price plateau changed from $26 for fat cattle to the $40’s; in the late 70’s the consumer appetite for fast food & prepared food required 70% of our beef is now eaten in some processed form. Same with the white meat and we now enjoy a wide variety of pork products.
I recall Howard Cowden speaking many times encouraging ‘adding value’ to fungible Ag products. We now enjoy added value-Corn is no longer just a livestock feed. Data suggests industrial use may soon exceed feed use.
In the recent five year period consumers in many parts of the world can now enter a food store jammed with variety of brands and types of products. I recall years ago traveling into regions where meat hung from hooks or wire in the open air along with the expected flock of flies-I believe, regardless of race or language, folks prefer clean food & packaged conveniently.
Wheat can be grown in a variety of areas. Corn production has geographic limitations. I believe we are at the beginning of an era focused on corn production in the USA.
In 1979 the effects of the previous inflation cycle began to be evidenced in a lower standard of living for a lot of folks-both adults now work at some job to make ends meet... Wal-Mart flourished. I suggest the average wage-earner, without the supply of cheaper foreign produced goods, would be in dire poverty. I notice in some parts of the country the dollar stores have mushroomed supposedly offering goods cheaper than Wal-Mart.
When we travel, I enjoy visiting supermarkets. As our currency is again debased over the next few years, more and more USA folks will be unable to afford quality protein sources. In addition, considering the land prices of today, the economics of cow-calf operations are a puzzle. I no longer bother thinking about it.
I noted a recent article indicated 21% of the USA young people lack the mental skills and physical condition and to be accepted by the US Army.
The tricky part of analyzing these markets is to observe foreign demand for quality food gain on the USA domestic demand. After this current period of financial turmoil, perhaps 10 years from now, a large proportion of USA citizens are going to be on the poverty rolls. A greater proportion of their income will be required to buy food which will impact transportation patterns and housing.
While I support the Tea Party movement, it is a pipe dream to assume much will change in the political arena. Government is corporate, politics are corporate & we have to completely re-invent ourselves to alter our present path.
Until we do re-invent ourselves the safe jobs will be government work, High Tech & some of the professions & crime. Looks to me like the USA is going to appear more like the USSR of 1970 than the USA of 1970. Those were pretty much the safe professions in that country in those days.
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Grain stocks article..
