The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) warned Friday the lingering drought will damage the year's summer crop output, but analysts say the country's grain crop prices won't be much affected. Summer crops normally make up 20 percent of China's annual grain output which has grown for three straight years since 2003 to 497. Given the government's massive grain crop reserve, analysts said the drop won't result in a grain shortfall or drastic price hikes. But the official forecast has not yet been...

Two hundred pounds of crayfish were finished off in three hours. Although she didn't have final attendance numbers for Sunday's event, Holt took the butter and crayfish consumption as a sign that the size of this year's fiesta surpassed last year's attendance of 5,000. But the most important item sweet corn remained plentiful, albeit in dwindling amounts. Food dwindles quickly at Sweet Corn Fiesta. Sixty pounds of butter was ordered for today's Seventh Annual South Florida Sweet Corn...

In part the price-hike threat to the food staple for Mexican workers and the poor is what we might call the ethanol effect a consequence of the US stampede to corn-based ethanol as an energy substitute for oil, whose major wellsprings, of course, are in regions that even more grievously defy international order. In January, in Mexico City, tens of thousands of workers and farmers rallied in the Zocalo, the city s central square, to protest the skyrocketing cost of tortillas. In part the...

Although it wasn't the rain he was banking on, the second-generation farmer said there was enough moisture to plant the grain. Last year he did not plant crops so the land could rejuvenate and he wasn't sure he would get seed in the ground at all this season. After Friday's downpour, which saw up to 80mm fall in some parts of the state, farmers are optimistic there will be follow-up rain. Mr Laurie said follow-up rain was vital for farmers to recoup the losses of the past three to four...

Prices have exceeded $4 a bushel at times and are up 50 percent on the cash market from a year ago. The world's largest beef processor and second-largest chicken producer, Tyson has raised prices for its products to diminish the impact. Tyson CEO laments rising corn prices. Bond said rising grain prices will cost Springdale, Ark.