(italics mine).
Guess what got devastated this year? Corn and soybeans (where the US just lowered its forecase of yields for the 3rd time), but somehow the US pulls off a slight increase on wheat.
but there is bad news:
Problem is, everybody else is down.and then more good news:
I say this in presentations all the time: the biggest force for global stability right now is the U.S. farmer.
The Middle East tends to eat wheat/ bread, so an increase in the price of bread could lead to instability...
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I'm not sure about the rice crop...
Here in the Philippines we've had lots of rain, and floods in some rice growing areas, but the main danger right now is trying to get the rice harvested and dried, in a country where the poor traditionally dry the rice on flat surfaces (e.g. roads, parking lots, or on tarps in the fields). We bought a rice drier after losing part of our crop last year, and the gov't is offering us a subsidy for a solar drier for the local farmers. The gov't is also offering advice on growing rice with less flooding, partly because after the summer rains we expect a very dry winter for the winter crop.
The rice harvest has been hit in some areas, but the prices are stable, and the real danger is that the increase in the price of petroleum will lead to higher expenses and higher rice prices (e.g. inflation).
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