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| The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts farmers will plant 90.5 million acres of corn in 2007. |
This year, as the demand for corn to produce ethanol surges, farmers in the United States are expected to grow the most corn since 1944, according to the New York Times. A new U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) report released in late March estimates that farmers will sow 90.5 million acres (36.6 million hectares) of corn in 2007, a 15 percent increase over last year. Because of the high prices the crop can fetch, farmers “are planting wall-to-wall corn,” Webb Bozeman, a farmer from Mississippi, told the Times.
The USDA report, Prospective Plantings, notes that growing more corn will mean less land devoted to cotton, rice, and soybeans. “Corn is profitable. Cotton is pretty much break-even at best,” Bozeman says. Farmland prices are also rising as a result of the ethanol boom: for the first time in 30 years, the value of cropland from Iowa to Argentina rose faster than that of apartments in Manhattan and London.
David Driscoll, an analyst for Citigroup, says the USDA estimate means there will likely be enough corn to meet both food and fuel needs, though he stipulates that corn harvests ultimately depend on the weather. The expected increase in corn supply has also eased concerns about rising food costs, at least in the United States. “Commodity farming has always been a boom and bust sort of thing,” notes Worldwatch Institute senior researcher Brian Halweil. “And right now, prices are high so farmers plant more, which tends to bring prices right back down.”
This story was produced by Eye on Earth, a joint project of the Worldwatch Institute and the blue moon fund. View the complete archive of Eye on Earth stories, or contact Staff Writer Alana Herro at aherro [AT] worldwatch [DOT] org with your questions, comments, and story ideas.
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