1. Crop and Pesticide Inputs. Pesticide Inputs Of the five crops, 53 percent of the pesticide total was applied to corn in 1982, followed by soybeans (28 percent), cotton (9.6 percent), fall potatoes (4.8 percent), and wheat (4.5 percent). Corn’s share declined to 43 percent in 2010, while fall potatoes’ share increased to 20 percent [...]
Photo: Flickr CC via bagsgroove Now, it’s possible that Mother Nature will surprise the monoculture cropland country with unexpected rains this next week, and it’s possible that such rains could revive crops much more than the current gloomy forecasters expect, but it’s also possible that the Midwest is in for a long overdue drought season, [...]
“While ocean freight rates at the end of April 2011 were somewhat higher than in February 2011, they were still less than a fourth of the peak levels reached in 2007 and 2008, largely reflecting the increase in shipping capacity.” Ocean freight rates affect the cost of imported food commodities. As food commodity prices increased [...]
