Getting to be about that time of day.
"Drought worsens in Plains states, food prices rise" by Jim Suhr | ASSOCIATED PRESS, August 10, 2012
ST. LOUIS — The Plains states, where the production of corn and soybeans is key, are being hit harder by excessive drought conditions after the hottest July on record in the continental United States, contributing to a surge in global food prices....
I'm already hungry and depressed and spewing the fart-mist is making it hard for me to breathe.
Related:
"In the United States, the main culprit is a cold cycle in the surface temperature of the eastern Pacific Ocean."
I was told the oceans were warming up.
Of course, I was told a lot of things that turned out not to be true by the altrui$tic cult of global warmers. They hid the decline of temperature for ten years, and now I hear from the blogs that the ice sheets are expanding.
Hey, maybe it is happening now, but it is never for the rea$ons claimed in my paper. There is alway$ an ulterior motive. Didn't the fact that Wall Street was going to underwrite the carbon-trading market (literally creating money out of thin air) give you pause, especially after what we have seen happen to Facebook?
Why would anyone ever believe the agenda-pushing liars of the AmeriKan media ever again is beyond me. They had their chance to repent, and they not only did not repent, they have actually gotten worse. It's hard to believe, but the agenda-pushing propaganda industry known as the newspaper is even worse than a few years ago.
Severe drought punishing the US midsection has sent corn prices soaring by almost 23 percent, and expectations of worsened crop prospects in Russia because of dry weather sent world wheat prices up 19 percent, according to the UN’s Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization, which keeps close tabs on volatile global prices.
The US leads the world in exporting corn, soybeans, and wheat, and the surging prices are expected to be felt across the international marketplace, hurting poor food-importing countries, said a study by British charity Oxfam issued on the eve of the UN report....
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I better eat up while I still can:
"Drought likely to push up gas, food prices; Higher costs of food and fuel expected within months" by Erin Ailworth | Globe Staff, August 17, 2012
The drought that has hit much of the nation, including parts of New England, is expected to drive up food and gasoline prices in the coming months, further squeezing cash-strapped US consumers.
I noticed that banks and corporations are doing just fine.
With nearly two-thirds of the nation in drought, the US Department of Agriculture recently slashed its estimates for corn and soybean production. Both are key crops in the US food production chain — used in livestock feed, oils, and sweeteners — so when their costs rise, so will prices for other foods.
Corn is also used to make ethanol, which is blended in gasoline — so expect higher prices at the pump, too.
And they have already been on the rise.
I have been saying it for years: I NEVER THOUGHT it was a GOOD IDEA to BURN FOOD -- especially when there are SO MANY HUNGRY PEOPLE in the WORLD!
But some well-connected $pecial intere$t$ needed a taxpayer $ub$idy, so....
Yeah, a world war to get your mind off things is just what we need!!
The impact of the drought will take several months to reach supermarket shelves, but food prices could rise an average of 3 to 4 percent next year, according to the USDA. Average food prices in July, both nationally and in Boston, were 2 percent higher than a year ago, after jumping 4 percent in 2011, according to the US Labor Department.
Grocery chains like Stop & Shop say they are monitoring the situation, worried that further increases in food prices could lead consumers to pull back further on spending....
I can't contract anymore. My one daily luxury is a cup of coffee and a $2 pos called the Boston Globe.
I gue$$ you know what is coming, readers. And when I don't buy a Globe, I don't read a Globe, and if I don't read a Globe, I don't link a Globe, and if I don't link a Globe....
What do we do with a newspaper that lies to and deludes itself?
The drought represents another hit for consumers and the US economy, which counts on consumer spending for more than two-thirds of its activity.
And with the destruction of the US middle class it will no longer be the engine that carries global consumption. It's over, Americans. The good times are gone just like your jobs and homes, and they are never coming back.
Sadly, it was the business and government sectors that love you so much that did it to you.
The impact, however, will reach well beyond US borders, since the United States is the world’s leading producer and exporter of corn, the feed stock of so many food products. Prices for the commodity have risen roughly 60 percent since June.
“That means higher prices for everybody,” said Nigel Gault, chief US economist for the Lexington forecasting firm IHS Global Insight.
But some people -- like the elite that were the only ones to benefit from the continuing Depression -- can absorb those costs better than others.
In Vermont, that could mean higher feed prices for dairy farmer Earl Ransom, adding to the squeeze from a 5 to 10 percent drop in milk production because his pastures aren’t yielding as much grass for his cows.... [expect] a 25- to 30-cent-per-gallon increase in milk.
Cross that off the grocery list from now on.
Recent rains, however, have provided some relief....
The drought broke?
Cattle farmers around the country are dealing with the same problems and spending more to buy hay and feed. In many cases, they have slaughtered animals they can no longer afford to keep, tightening cattle supplies....
Overall, beef and veal prices nationally are expected to rise between 4 and 5 percent next year. Restaurants like the Smith & Wollensky steakhouse chain, headquartered in Boston, are already considering options to deal with the rising costs. Corporate chef Matt King said the chain’s current contract for beef runs through mid-January so restaurant prices should remain stable.
But if prices remain on the rise after that, King said, the chain will look to see where it can absorb costs or tweak its menu to include more seafood before upping its prices.
Who wants to order oil-soaked or radioactive seafood in a restaurant?
Analysts say the drought will also have an impact on gasoline prices because the fuel is partially blended with ethanol made from corn. Phil Flynn, an analyst at The Price Futures Group in Chicago, said he expects higher corn ethanol costs to add 5 to 6 cents to gas prices.
Yeah, it's just another nickel a gallon, 'murkn. Maybe you should try drinking a gallon of the stuff, too!
Ultimately, the only real fix for the drought will be rain and cool weather, which has been a bit more abundant recently in Massachusetts. Drought conditions in parts of the Midwest and Southeast have also eased this week.
Brad Rippey, a meteorologist for the USDA, said many areas still need a good soaking in the next few months....
In Massachusetts, the situation is less dire....
The latest forecast from the National Weather Service, however, predicts that the drought will continue and even intensify across much of the United States through November. The drought, Rippey said, could extend into next year....
God's judgment on our war-mongering and looting ways?
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Related: Impact of corn prices on food? Not what you think
Yeah, I forgot to say grace.
"A summer drought that has destroyed crops, killed livestock, and sent feed prices soaring is now extracting a political price from members of Congress, who failed to agree on a comprehensive agriculture bill or even limited emergency relief before leaving Washington for five weeks in their parched precincts."
Yeah, just let the country cook as you f***ers go on vacation.
"Rise in livestock anthrax deaths is linked to drought" by David Pitt | Associated Press, August 17, 2012
DES MOINES — Anthrax has killed more than 100 animals on ranches in Colorado and Texas within the past two weeks, and specialists say the risk of infection may be greater with drought covering much of the United States.
Anthrax outbreaks happen occasionally in livestock herds and wild animals in the United States, usually west of the Mississippi River. Animals typically get the disease by ingesting or inhaling spores that survive in soil for decades. Once infected, livestock can die within hours.
Anthrax bacteria react to drought and other harsh conditions by making more spores, and scientists said conditions are ripe for disease this year. A drought stretches from Ohio to California and from Texas to the Dakotas. Many places also have been burned by unusually long stretches of triple-digit temperatures....
I don't know what is killing the cows, but I'm not inclined to believe any explanation offered by the AmeriKan media. They have simply lied too much for too long. Sorry.
Anthrax specialists and veterinarians warned ranchers to watch for sudden deaths, the usual sign of an anthrax infection. Herds can be decimated by an outbreak if animals are not quickly vaccinated.
Anthrax cases have frequently been documented along the route of cattle drives common in the 1800s during the westward migration of pioneers and their livestock. The bacteria’s spores seem to survive better in alkaline soil with high levels of calcium, a type abundant in the West. In general, however, the spores are extremely durable and can lie dormant for years. Once ingested, they reconstitute and spread rapidly through the body of warm-blooded animals.
Humans can get anthrax through direct contact with infected livestock, often when spores get into a cut on the skin. Without treatment, anthrax can be fatal, but early treatment with antibiotics is very effective.
More than 1,600 animals, including deer, antelope, cows, sheep, horses, and llamas, died in a 2001 Texas outbreak.
The most recent outbreak was identified last week in a cow herd in northeast Colorado’s Logan County. About 60 cows died at a ranch where one had been diagnosed with the first anthrax case in Colorado in 31 years, state officials said. On Wednesday, they announced cows on two adjacent ranches also had died from anthrax.
It is believed all the animals were infected by grazing in one area with spores in the soil, because the three ranches share fences, Colorado State Veterinarian Keith Roehr said.
The ranches were quarantined, animals vaccinated, and ranch workers treated with antibiotics as a precaution, health officials said....
Why did a certain $pecial intere$t just pop into my head?
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Related: Alphabet Agency: FDA Feedbag
Gee, it's a real alphabet soup for this first course.
"EPA can’t regulate livestock farms it can’t find" by Tammy Webber | Associated Press, August 03, 2012
CHICAGO — The report to Congress was blunt: The Environmental Protection Agency had failed to regulate pollution from the nation’s livestock farms — many capable of generating more waste than some cities — because it lacked information as basic as how many farms even existed.
Four years after the US Government Accountability Office raised concerns and 40 years after the Clean Water Act gave the EPA the authority to protect the nation’s waterways, the agency still doesn’t know the location of many livestock farms, let alone how much manure they generate or how the waste is handled, because most of that information is kept by various state and/or local agencies — or not collected at all.
At the same time, water-quality specialists cite livestock waste as a major contributor to water-quality problems, including in areas like the Chesapeake Bay, where manure runoff is believed responsible for up to one-fourth of phosphorus, which stimulates algae growth. If the EPA knew all the sources of that waste, it might be easier to stop it, environmentalists say.
I guess you know what is in the water now.
See: Blooms of toxic algae close swimming holes
Who is shitting and pissing in the Boston pools?
Mired in the Muck of the Lousiana Marshes
Beaches close after high bacteria counts in water
No Day at the Boston Globe Beach
That's why I never go anymore.
So they were flabbergasted when the EPA recently decided against adopting a rule that would require livestock operators to provide the agency with information, opting instead to try to cobble it together from other state, local, and federal sources.
Related: EPA Literally Looking Over Shoulder of Farmers
‘‘It’s been [decades] since we first started regulating them and we’re not at a point where we know where they’re at?’’ said Kelly Foster, senior attorney at Waterkeeper Alliance, one of several environmental groups that sued the EPA to get it to start collecting information on concentrated animal feeding operations.
It’s not unusual for these operations to have thousands of cattle, tens of thousands of hogs, or millions of chickens in one location. Pollution from faulty manure storage or runoff happens often enough to generate complaints, and environmentalists suspect many more problems go undetected.
Hey, shit happens -- literally.
To settle Waterkeeper’s lawsuit, the EPA agreed to propose the rule requiring livestock operations to report information to the agency. But it didn’t promise to adopt it.
Industry officials said there’s no reason for farmers to have to give the EPA information, especially if another government agency already has it or a farm isn’t doing anything wrong....
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For some reason I've lost my appetite.
"Crews battle dozens of Western fires" by Jessie L. Bonner | Associated Press, August 16, 2012
FEATHERVILLE, Idaho — Across the West, dozens of fires fueled by searing heat, dry weather, and strong winds have added up to misery for weary residents who already are fed up with one of the region’s worst fire seasons in decades....
A series of wildfires also have started or intensified in recent days in Washington, Northern California, and Nevada as the West’s high heat and dry conditions keep fire crews busier than usual.
Not only are more of the nation’s wildfires occurring in the West this year than last, but the fires have gotten bigger, said Jennifer Smith of the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho....
Related: Stamping Out a Forest Fire Post
I wish someone would stamp out the lying.
Nine big fires in Idaho....
Nevada has 11 big fires....
Related(?):
California has 13....
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Related:
Wildfires blaze across West, burning homes
At least they caught the guy who started them:
Wildfire arsonist guilty of 5 heart attack deaths
Also see: Wildfires leave 1 dead, dozens homeless in Okla.
"Many Oklahomans forced to leave their homes because of raging wildfires were allowed to return Sunday, despite some fires continuing to burn.... possible arson."
I'm burned out on the Boston Globe.
Next Day Update:
"As some return to homes, others flee
SPOKANE — As hundreds of residents in Washington and California were allowed to return to homes once threatened by major wildfires, some people were told to evacuate as encroaching blazes neared Idaho towns. The towns of Pine and Featherville remained in the path of a 113-square-mile wildfire that has been burning for two weeks. Authorities had been asking residents to prepare to leave (AP)."
