“His Facebook page showed a paunchy white guy in his forties, with a face like an unbaked biscuit, his pants pulled up to the third button of his blue, brown and yellow madras shirt. His wife looked like his twin sister, the three kids already showing paunches.”

Harvesting in a trade war: U.S. crops rot as storage costs soar

By Mark Weinraub and P.J. Huffstutter, Reuters – 1:33 AM ET 11/21/2018Top New

Nov 21(Reuters) – U.S. farmers finishing their harvests are facing a big problem – where to put the mountain of grain they cannot sell to Chinese buyers.

For Louisianafarmer Richard Fontenotand his neighbors, the solution was a costly one: Let the crops rot.

Fontenot plowed under 1,000 of his 1,700 soybean acres this fall, chopping plants into the dirt instead of harvesting more than $300,000 worth of beans.

His beans were damaged by bad weather, made worse by a wet harvest. Normally, he could sell them anyway to a local elevator – giant silos usually run by international grains merchants that store grain.

But this year they aren’t buying as much damaged grain. The elevators are already chock full.

“No one wants them,” Fontenot said in a telephone interview. As he spoke, he drove his tractor across a soybean field, tilling under his crop. “I don’t know what else to do.”

Across the United States, grain farmers are plowing under crops, leaving them to rot or piling them on the ground, in hopes of better prices next year, according to interviews with more than two dozen farmers, academic researchers and farm lenders. It’s one of the results, they say, of a U.S. trade war with Chinathat has sharply hurt export demand and swamped storage facilities with excess grain.

In Louisiana, up to 15 percent of the oilseed crop is being plowed under or is too damaged to market, according to data analyzed by Louisiana State Universitystaff. Crops are going to waste in parts of Mississippiand Arkansas. Grain piles, dusted by snow, sit on the ground in North and South Dakota. And inIllinoisand Indiana, some farmers are struggling to protect silo bags stuffed with crops from animals.

U.S. farmers planted 89.1 million acres of soybeans this year, the second most ever, expecting China’srising demand to give them better returns than other bulk crops.

But Beijingslapped a 25 percent tariff on U.S. soybeans in retaliation for duties imposed by Washingtonon Chinese exports. That effectively shut down U.S. soybean exports to China, worth around $12 billionlast year. Chinatypically takes around 60 percent of U.S. supplies.

The U.S. government rolled out an aid program of around the same size – $12 billion- to help farmers absorb the cost of the trade war. As of mid-November, $837.8 millionhad been paid out.

Some of that money will pass from farmers to grain merchants such as Archer Daniels Midland Co

and Bunge Ltd

, who are charging farmers more to store crops at elevators where there is limited space. Bunge

and ADM did not respond to requests for comment on storage fees.

The storage crunch and higher fees have boosted revenues at grain elevator Andersons, Chief Executive Officer Pat Bowesaid in an interview.

“It’s paying a grain handler to store – it’s the old-fashioned way to make money,” Bowe said.

These are also boom times for John Wierenga, president of grain storage bag retailer Neeralta. Sales of their bags – white tubes up to 300 feet now littering Midwest fields – are up 30 percent from a year ago.

“The demand has been huge,” Wierenga said. “We are sold out.”

HIGHER FEES

Farmers are feeling the pinch. Those in central Illinoiscould pay up to 40 percent more than in previous years to store crops over the coming weeks, agricultural consultant Matt Bennettestimated.

That amounts to between 3 centsto 6 centsa bushel, Bennett said, a painful expense for a crop that was already expected to deliver little income to farmers.

Storage rates are swinging wildly, depending on the elevator location. Grain dealers at rivers typically charge more than their inland counterparts because they are more dependent on export markets.

At some Midwest river terminals, farmers were paying 60 centsa bushel to store soybeans until the end of the year – more than twice as much as a year ago. Some commercial terminals are charging farmers to just drop off their soybeans.

The trade war has only exacerbated the strain on storage, which has been a persistent problem in recent years due largely to a worldwide oversupply of grains.

Even before this fall’s harvest, around 20 percent of total grain storage available in the U.S. was full with corn, soybeans and wheat from previous harvests, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That was the highest in 12 years for this time of year.

Some grain merchants are also charging additional fees for farmers who deliver less-than-perfect soybeans, said Russell Altom, a soybean farmer and senior vice president of agricultural lending at Relyance Bankin Pine Bluff, Arkansas.

“I’ve never seen things this bad,” Altom said. “I know several farmers who hired lawyers, to see if they can sue over the pricing and fees issues.”

Eric Maupin, a farmer in Newbern, Tennessee, said he was facing so-called dockage rates of between 60 centsat $1.20per bushels at Bunge Elevators in his area – more than three times as high as a year ago.

“Damage can be anything – a split bean, one that’s too small, one that’s too big – whatever,” Maupin said.

Some farmers are pulling farm equipment out of barns to make room for the overflow of grains.

After packing nearly half a million bushels of corn and soybeans in their usual steel bins, Terry Honselmanand his family found some additional space in 35-year-old shed on theirCasey, Illinois, farm.

Most years, the building protects farm equipment and bags of seed. Now, it is stuffed with 75,000 bushels of corn.

Like others, Honselman is banking on a resolution to the trade war before this spring – when he says he will need the space back for his planting supplies.

(Reporting by Mark Weinraubin Chicagoand Casey, Illinois; andP.J. Huffstutterin Chicago; Editing by Caroline Stauffer, Simon Webband Paul Thomasch)

(c) Reuters 2018. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

We have a particular arrogance, an ingrained hubris that presupposes the United States is the best place on earth. At least that was the case before the president won election by shouting the country wasn’t so great, but he would make it so.

Forty-five countries in the world have a better maternal mortality rate than the United States. The American health system manages to kill 14 women per 1,000 births.

Here is the list of the countries (according to the CIA Factbook, that have a lower maternal mortality rate:

140	QATAR	13
141	SAUDI ARABIA	12	2015 EST.
142	KAZAKHSTAN	12	2015 EST.
143	BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA	11	2015 EST.
144	NEW ZEALAND	11	2015 EST.
145	KOREA, SOUTH	11	2015 EST.
146	BULGARIA	11	2015 EST.
147	LITHUANIA	10	2015 EST.
148	SINGAPORE	10	2015 EST.
149	PORTUGAL	10	2015 EST.
150	LUXEMBOURG	10	2015 EST.
151	ESTONIA	9	2015 EST.
152	LIBYA	9	2015 EST.
153	UNITED KINGDOM	9	2015 EST.
154	SLOVENIA	9	2015 EST.
155	MALTA	9	2015 EST.
156	IRELAND	8	2015 EST.
157	MACEDONIA	8	2015 EST.
158	CROATIA	8	2015 EST.
159	FRANCE	8	2015 EST.
160	BELGIUM	7	2015 EST.
161	CANADA	7	2015 EST.
162	NETHERLANDS	7	2015 EST.
163	MONTENEGRO	7	2015 EST.
164	CYPRUS	7	2015 EST.
165	UNITED ARAB EMIRATES	6	2015 EST.
166	AUSTRALIA	6	2015 EST.
167	SLOVAKIA	6	2015 EST.
168	GERMANY	6	2015 EST.
169	DENMARK	6	2015 EST.
170	ISRAEL	5	2015 EST.
171	JAPAN	5	2015 EST.
172	SWITZERLAND	5	2015 EST.
173	SPAIN	5	2015 EST.
174	NORWAY	5	2015 EST.
175	AUSTRIA	4	2015 EST.
176	BELARUS	4	2015 EST.
177	SWEDEN	4	2015 EST.
178	ITALY	4	2015 EST.
179	KUWAIT	4	2015 EST.
180	CZECHIA	4	2015 EST.
181	FINLAND	3	2015 EST.
182	POLAND	3	2015 EST.
183	ICELAND	3	2015 EST.
184	GREECE	3	2015 EST.

 

The United States of course spends much more per capita to kill its mothers. To wit:

United States          $9,024

Switzerland             6,787

Germany                  5,119

Sweden                     5,003

Canada                     4,506

France                       4,367

Australia                  4,177

Japan                        4,152

Britain                      3,971

Italy                           3,207

All that socialism can deliver universal health care for as much as a third of what the United States spends. That is remarkable. Where does the money go? Corporate socialism  reigns.

 

 

 

If so, how come there’s so much of it going on?

One could argue that price-fixing is as much an American tradition as apple pie and the Fourth of July. But seriously, if it’s a crime….

From a friend, Bob McCampbell:

I am in your debt for introducing me to Patrick O’Brian! Just finished 21, his final unfinished work of the Aubrey/Maturin episodes. I’m left a little unhappy that it all comes to an end…the same feeling I had upon learning of Sue Grafton’s passing before finishing her series.

I’m pretty sure I’ll re-read the series at some point, if only to keep a dictionary to hand for some of the very obscure words and phrases that I glossed over in my haste to keep reading.  God, it was captivating!

I turn now to Robert Parker for a little contemporary escapism!

Cheers,

Bob

My response:

Steve:  I was watching a TV newscast yesterday and a former aide to Harry Reid was blistering Trump (deservedly so).  He ended with the stern denunciation that the president is “…showing a willful lack of ignorance.”  Amen, I think. — Corky (Simpson, former sports columnist for the Tucson Citizen)

Corky, good to hear from you.

As far as I can tell, Trump does not lack ignorance. In fact, I’d say Trump has demonstrated a plethora of ignorance unequaled by any American president. Or, for that matter, any American politician over the span of 242 years of the Republic’s existence. In fact, Trump is, in truth, the most ignorant fat slob ever to tramp this planet. His ignorance is so profound, absolute and far-reaching that it cannot be contained on this Earth, but floats like a infinite slime ball into the Universe, spreading stupidity, racism and IGNORANCE. He is the black plague to the 100th power.

Clickith here.

“There is a tragic flaw in our precious Constitution, and I don’t know what can be done to fix it.

This is it:

Only nut cases want to be president.”