Still, area farmers and grain buyers say they are having no problems marketing corn or soybeans --- 91 percent of the nation's soybean acres are biotech --- this year. Domestic consumers readily feed and process genetically-modified corn and soybeans once it is federally approved as safe. One out of five bushels of corn will be exported this year, or 2.15 billion bushels, according to government projections. Despite the reluctance of some countries to buy all genetically-altered grain,...

Even otherwise, though USA spent $64 billion last year on foreign food, it is still a negligible share of the food it eats. No country in the world today can match USA as a depreciating dollar makes Uncle Sam shahenshah of the global food marketplace. After the sub-prime cri-sis, it has been a cakewalk for the dollar to outprice already expensive produce from traditional rivals in a stretched market. Since consumers rarely change their diets drastically in response to prices, USA would...

Mujuru assures farmers of enough seed Herald Reporter VICE President Joice Mujuru has assured farmers in Mashonaland Central that more seed will be delivered to Grain Marketing Board depots in the coming week and urged them to prepare adequately for the forthcoming season. Mujuru assures farmers of enough seed Herald Reporter VICE President Joice Mujuru has assured farmers in Mashonaland Central that more seed will be delivered to Grain Marketing Board depots in the coming week and urged...

But deregulation has led to precarious market positions with numerous farmers unable to fulfil contracts while others are watching prices go well beyond their contract prices. The competition has come as low world barley stocks have pushed prices to records this season with feed barley prices reaching $400 a tonne before slipping to about $300/t, still higher than ever before. Rural Directions marketing services manager Chris Heinjus said that a significant amount of barley marketing had...

Although this year s harvest yields are about average, farmers and elevators planned ahead because more corn was planted this year to use in producing ethanol. Additional space became available before harvest because of market prices. The bunkers aren t as convenient as grain bins but should result in the same quality of grain as long as the weather stays cool, Park said. We had trouble a couple years ago when everyone was expecting 170-bushel corn and had 200-bushel corn, Park said. No...