Price of Milk

[goprog]

I was wrong - sweet corn is used ONLY for corn on the cob,
canned or frozen corn. Syrups and other corn food products
come from field corn. Which all implies corn futures/prices
are based on field corn.

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www.ncga.com

This also says:

Q. What's the primary use for corn?

A. Corn serves as a primary livestock feed source. More than half of the crop puts meat on America's dinner table. A bushel of corn fed to livestock produces 5.6 pounds of retail beef, 13 pounds of retail pork, 19.6 pounds of chicken or 28 pounds of catfish.

Too bad it didn't say how milk or eggs are related to it.

 

[goprog]

Didn't read the last paragraph of the website

In the US (1996)

71,000,000 acres of field corn
__120,000 acres of sweet corn

 

[exploder3211]

AT mejers it was $2.84 a gallon...In Ann Arbor Mi

 

[launderess]

This is all very interesting in that corn is NOT the natural food of most livestock, outside of perhaps poultry.

Cattle have never nor were "designed" to eat corn, thus they develop all sorts of problems, for which they are pumped full of antibiotics and other chemicals to remedy. Pigs were fed all sorts of things, but to make them leaner and remove the risk of parasites, they also are on a mostly corn diet.

Americans consume more "corn" than any place else in the form of sweetner (high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup etc) is in much of what is sold, especially soft drinks and processed food. Stuff is bad, bad, bad, and probably adding to the increase of diabeties we are seeing.

 

[launderess]

Speaking of Sweet Corn

Now is sweet corn season, with many local farms, pick your own places, green markets etc, bursting with those lovely ears. Just right for all sorts of dishes, but IMHO best on the cob!

L.

 

[selectomatic]

Your teeth, Laundress, are clearly NOT like mine!

I have fairly tightly-packed teeth. Not jammed enough to make them crooked, but tight enough that anything stringy gets stuck in there. Corn-on-the-cob is mildly tasty, but if I don't jump up immediately and floss, it's not worth the discomfort. It's enough to drive me crazy (One Mystery Solved!)

Even if I do floss, there's always a little bit left to annoy me all evening. Thanks, but I'll pass. You can have my share.

-kevin

 

[goprog]

Sweet corn

You got that right, though it just doesn't seem to be as good
as it was way-back-when. I remember Dad taking the pickup
downtown with a load of sweet corn (town's population was
maybe 60?) and I and maybe my brother would sit there selling
a baker's dozen of newly picked sweet corn for $1? Probably
sold most of it to people driving through town. And the
price today (as I saw in the big-box grocery store - how
fresh is that) was about 3 times that now while everything
else has gone up 10 times or more since then. Cheapest gas
I ever bought was $.18/gallon and that was after college.

Yes, corn is used to put the weight on the animals as fast as
possible.

 

[sudsmaster]

Part of the problem, ironically, is Nafta.

Nafta was supposed to help end the illegal immigration problem by making it easier for Mexicans to earn living wages at home.

Instead, cheap American corn flooded Mexico, dropping the price of corn there so low that many farmers were forced off their land, and they wound up emigrating to America, illegally or otherwise. Now I guess the cornfields in Mexico lie fallow and the price of corn here is rising, but those who have left their farms are unlikely to return. This, I suppose, is progress.

 

[polkanut]

I paid $3.52 for a gal. of 1% @ Wal-Mart yesterday here in Wausau.

 

[appnut]

Well, I checked today. Ranged from $3.79 for generic 1% gallon to $4.19 for store brand whole milk. I've not looked at national brand milk prices in decades.

 

[tnmike]

Milk

A local convenience store sells their brand here for $3.65 for skim. I saw Mayfield (local brand name) for $5.19 in Target last night! OUCH.

 

[tlee618]

Just checked here today in Florida, $4.15 a gallon for 2%. $2.49 for a half gallon.

 

[sikiguya]

2%

I just paid $2.65/gallon tonight for regular store brand 2% milk. We go through 3-4 gallons a week in my house so I hope that the stores near me stay low!

 

[dalangdon]

I'm glad Laundress bought up the whole thing about cows not designed to eat corn. I remember "back on the farm" when the cows grazed, and corn was only used as a backup. The big industrial growers feed the cows corn to get them fatter quicker, and then actually market the beef as corn-fed.

As far as corn sweeteners go, I sincerely believe that High Fructose Corn Syrup is the root cause of so many of our health problems and obesity in this country. Personally, I've given up soda, and check labels on everything to make sure I'm not ingesting any more of that than absolutely necessary. It shows up everywhere though - even in salad dressings and condiments.

And don't get me started on farm subsidies. I'm all for supporting the independent farmer - but a lot of times the money is going straight into the hands of the agra corps, who can survive fine without it. Or, in the case of my aunt and uncle, who inherited a farm, they split the money with their tenant farmer, and see nothing wrong with that, even though they never turn a shovel towards production.

 

[appnut]

Dairy prices increase du to supply issues

This was on the local 6 o'clock news

You may have noticed you're paying more for cheese and milk at the grocery store.

The price of milk has gone up about 67 cents since last July. The price of corn feed has also gone up because there's more demand for it to make ethanol.

While some believe that's part of the reason for the dairy price hike, McLennan County Dairy Farmer Steve Denton said it's more of a supply issue.

"We’re not able to keep up with the supply that the national needs as well as the export market," Denton said.

Since countries such as Australia aren't producing as much right now because of drought the United States is having to produce even more.

 

[goprog]

Now this makes more sense to me than the price of corn/ethanol.

 

[appnut]

I'm glad I could help for a change.

 

[sudsmaster]

Too much of a good thing

I doubt that high fructose corn syrup in and of itself is the cause of any health problem. After all, fructose is a naturally occuring sugar, it's the main component of the sugars in various fruits.

The real problem is that the human body evolved over the millenia as a hunter-gatherer. This meant a diet that was high in fiber, low in fat, low in carbs, low in sugars, low in salt, relatively low in protein. As a result, the human appetite has a natural affinity for these scarce dietary components - we crave them. As humans developed agriculture, they started focusing on crops that they could store for at least a year - cereals and grains, and extracted oils, foods preserved with salt, etc. So the diet shifted to high carb, higher fat, higher salt. The domestication of animals meant that protein was more readily available. The human body had adapted to low amounts of these things because they were generally scarce. Nowadays, most people can eat high fat, high protein, high carb, high salt diets, and many do, because they let their natural dietary instincts direct their food selection and amounts. If there is a problem with high fructose corn syrup, is that it simply makes vast overdoses of sugars available for consumption at very low cost and without making one feel satiated.

We are the victims of our own success. Our abundance can kill us.

 

[sudsmaster]

Speaking of sweet corn

Bought a packed of husked/cut yellow Brentwood corn the other day. Wow, that stuff is really sweet. Ate one cob raw, very sweet. Cooked some others about 8 minutes (steamed), and the sweetness was much diminished. Next time will try cooking for just a couple three minutes. I have close set teeth as well, so flossing is a must after a corn-on-the-cob eating session.

I understand most Europeans regard fresh corn as food suitable only for animals. They don't know what they are missing!

 

[dalangdon]

Rich, as I understand it (and I'm about as far from a chemist as you can get, so you'll have to bear with me) the reason why High Fructose Corn Syrup is bad is that it takes a natural sweetner (fructose) and grafts it onto another natural sweetener (corn syrup) so that when the body consumes it, it doesn't know how to deal with the extra part, and that gets stored in your system, which contributes to obesity and diabetes.

For sure, the final verdict is not in yet, but there seems to be a lot of evidence about the impact of it - especially on kids. Other things come into play - our increasingly sedentary lifestyle, for instance - but this supercharged sweetner is definitely a part of the problem.

The trouble is, the large corporations like it because it's cheap, has a long shelf life, and can be used as a preservative in certain foods (breads and the like)

All I know is, when I dropped soda and made an effort to minimize High Fructose in my diet, I dropped 15 pounds, with no increased physical effort - and I was never big on sweets to start with.