Word: grains
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...turned up in livestock feed corn (although not the sweet corn so dear to the American palate) in nine major corn-producing states. The Illinois Department of Agriculture says a third of the crop samples tested show aflatoxin above permissible levels. But by blending the current crop with grain from uncontaminated past harvests, the corn can be used. Moreover, the Food and Drug Administration has cleared the way for the use of even more contaminated grain (for most farm animals other than dairy cows) by raising the allowable level of aflatoxin from 20 to 100 parts per billion...
...Richard Dennis, 39, known in Chicago as the Prince of the Pit, was one of the most successful commodities traders in the world. He launched bold invasions into markets ranging from Treasury bonds to precious metals. But he took a bath in financial futures after the crash and in grain during last summer's drought. His two public commodities funds lost an estimated $50 million in the past year, or nearly 50% of their value. Dennis decided last month to pack up his diminished fortune, estimated at $200 million, and move on to another pursuit: politics. He aims to invest...
...cigarettes and liquor. Prices were allowed to rise from artificially low levels, often set as far back as the 1950s, to whatever the market would bear. But the plan covered only about half of all commodity prices. The rest, including those of such agricultural staples as rice and other grains, have generally remained fixed under the old rules. This two-tier approach has led to some economic absurdities: farmers, for example, must buy fertilizer at high, decontrolled prices but sell their grain crop at low controlled ones, sometimes at a loss...
...hopes that the dismal rural economy--as many as one out of every three farmers is in financial distress--will put farmers in the Democratic column. Bush is playing on farmers' social conservatism and distrust of a Northeastern liberal elite, while reminding them of the high interest rates and grain embargo of the Carter years...
Drought-resistant varieties of grain and cattle will help these agricultural problems. The water problems, however, will only be corrected when commercial users in dry areas start paying the real price for their share of a precious public resource. In areas where clean water is hard to find, the public health must clearly have priority in water rationing. It is just this kind of policy decision that requires leadership and direction at the federal level...