BeefCast Industry

Global Food Prices Expected To Increase In 2011

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) food prices in 2011 are expected to increase.

In the latest edition of its Food Outlook report, the agency also issued a warning to the international community to prepare for harder times ahead unless production of major food crops increases significantly in 2011.

The report, at 119 pages, covers many aspects of global agriculture, with data on all the main agricultural products and statistics on key countries.

The increase in international prices of food commodities, all of which accruing in the second half of 2010, is boosting the overall food import bill in 2010 closer to the peak reached in 2008.

“Given the expectation of falling global inventories, the size of next year’s crops will be critical in setting the tone for stability in international markets,” FAO said. “For major cereals, production must expand substantially to meet utilization and to reconstitute world reserves, and farmers are likely to respond to the prevailing prices by expanding plantings.

#FoodThanks

via foodthanks.com

With the holiday season coming up, please take some time to thank the many farmers, ranchers, chefs, growers, artisans, bakers, friends and family who help bring/make food as part of the social center piece.

Sometimes the simplest expression of gratitude are the most profound. This Thanksgiving season, we encourage you to use social media to show just how thankful you are for the food we enjoy every day. In doing so, we will also be thanking those many people and industries who bring food to our tables.

Ways to share? Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are some starting points.

Issues With Corn As Food Vs Fuel In 2011?

via cattlenetwork.com

Corn production and demand are coming together to increase corn prices. This is great for corn growers but not great for those that depend on corn for animal feed. Adding ethanol into the mix again put corn in the middle of the food versus fuel debate.

Ethanol is consuming corn at a rate that is only 10 percent less than that of livestock and poultry demand. And more than one bushel of corn out of three produced in the US will be converted to ethanol in the current marketing year. That is going to cause concern about the amount of corn we will produce and whether it will be enough to meet demand with minimal rationing. And that causes concern for the traders.

Dr. Robert Wisner, University Professor Emeritus at Iowa State University, states "Corn supplies will be tight and some rationing of demand likely will be needed in the year ahead." This is not a great situation for those in animal agriculture without hedges and other risk mitigation actions in play.