During the 1990s low crude oil prices destroyed the domestic oil market. Small producers went broke, exploration disappeared and US oil production sagged. After driving out all the small guys� speculators and OPEC drove up market prices and laughed all the way to the bank.
The same thing has happened to agriculture in the US only it took much longer. The inflated value of the dollar destroyed exports and cheap domestic commodity prices drove millions off the farms. Currently the American farmer is a 65 year old man that's barely made it through the hard times or a corporation. The average age of an individual farmer is 55 and over 30% are 65 or older. The consolidation of food production in the US has been tremendous since the last "good" farming years came to a close with the grain embargo of 1979. Much like the oil companies the big boys are now calling the shots and the bottom line is PROFIT. The consumer is just now starting to pay for 30 years of the world�s cheapest food prices.
As for who benefits from ethanol: Every dollar the US sends over seas is lost. Members of OPEC buy German cars, Japanese electronics and Korean appliances or Soviet Military Surplus - none of it comes back to the US.
If the same money was paid to US farmers they'll buy Polaris 4 wheelers, John Deere or AGCO equipment, Gateway computers and big AMERICAN made pickups and trucks. Millions of hourly jobs are created to build that stuff and those workers have money in their pockets to buy their own durable goods.
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Today's Featured Article - The Revival of a John Deere Combine - by The Red, John Fritz. For several years I had been driving by a farm house on the west side of Indianapolis that had a John Deere combine parked in high weeds in a lot behind the house. The gentleman no longer farmed because the entire area was developed with housing and light industry. I had stopped several times and knocked on the door but no one would answer. My curiosity was up and I wanted to contact the owner. I wanted to see what he planned to do with the combine.
... [Read Article]
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