Several articles have started to pop up in the background for the past two months. At first, it was just about the weather being unusually hot, and the impact on people lifestyle. The focus started to shift towards the impact on agriculture and the possible impact on food prices.
Here are some articles:
By Russ Blinch and K.T. Arasu
WASHINGTON/CHICAGO, July 18 (Reuters) - Oppressive heat and a worsening drought in the U.S. Midwest pushed grain prices near or past records on Wednesday as crops wilted, cities baked and concerns grew about food and fuel price inflation in the world's top food exporter.
Soybean prices at the Chicago Board of Trade set a record high and corn closed near a record as millions of acres of crops seared in triple-digit heat in the Corn Belt. Corn fields have been plowed up in many locations for lack of rain. Now soybeans, which develop later than corn, are in the bull's eye.
"I get on my knees everyday and I'm saying an extra prayer right now," U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters after briefing President Barack Obama. "If I had a rain prayer or a rain dance I could do, I would do it."
Vilsack said the drought was getting worse for hard-hit farmers and the wilting crops will mean higher food prices.
"Part of the problem we're facing is that weather conditions were so good at the beginning of the season that farmers got in the field early, and as a result this drought comes at a very difficult and painful time in their ability to have their crops have good yield," Vilsack said.
Drought conditions now extend over more than 60 percent of the lower 48 states, the government said. The Department of Agriculture on Wednesday extended drought aid to an additional 39 counties designated as primary natural disaster areas, bringing such aid to a total of 1,297 counties across 29 states.
Vilsack said rising grain prices would mean meat and poultry prices will be higher this year and next, although the inflation may be delayed as farmers start culling their herds due to high feed prices and meat supplies stay adequate.
But the outlook for higher food prices could add up to another headache for Obama as he faces a November election with high joblessness and slower economic growth.
Hard-hit livestock producers and other groups want the Environmental Protection Agency to give oil refiners a waiver from the mandate to blend ethanol into gasoline, arguing demand for the corn-based fuel was driving up corn prices. About 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop now is used to produce ethanol.
But Vilsack said there was no need for such action as yet.
"There is no need to go to the EPA at this time based on the quantity of ethanol that is in storage," he said.
The U.S. drought is expected to be felt worldwide as the world's biggest grain exporter struggles with shortfalls. The United States exports more than half of all world corn shipments and is also the single top exporter of wheat and soy.
"The dramatic rise in grain prices in the past few weeks is shaping up to be a serious financial blow for wheat importing countries," one German trader said on Monday.
"African and Middle Eastern countries are now facing painful rises in import bills."
WEATHER OUTLOOK STILL HOT AND DRY
Forecasters were calling for scattered showers on Wednesday evening in some parts of the east coast and Midwest. But relief was seen as too little and too late for many of the key areas of the central Plains and Corn Belt.
"There are no soaking rains in sight, nothing to relieve the drought," said World Weather Inc meteorologist Andy Karst. "There will be some light rains today through Friday in the eastern Midwest."
Iowa and Illinois, which produce about a third of U.S. corn and soybeans, continued to swelter on Wednesday in temperatures at or above 100 degrees (37.8 degrees Celsius) with little to no rain forecast.
Corn prices have jumped more than 50 percent in the last month as the crop wilted in many locations during its key growth stage of pollination.
Corn for September delivery at the Chicago Board of Trade closed at $7.95 a bushel, near last summer's record high of $7.99-3/4. Soybeans for August delivery closed at $16.85-1/2, a new record high.
"Now, it's soybeans' turn. The next two weeks will be critical for them. There is a chance for catastrophic problems in soybeans," said grains analyst Don Roose of U.S. Commodities in Des Moines, Iowa
"The summer of 2012 is on pace to finish third hottest on the list of 62 summers since 1950," said Steven Root, a meteorologist with WeatherBank Inc. "But it is still in the running for number two or one."
In many parts of the country, power grids were under pressure from demand on air conditioning but most were holding up. In New York City, Consolidated Edison reduced its power voltage in some Manhattan neighborhoods, resulting in brownouts.
Low water levels in many lakes and rivers were hampering transportation, with hydroelectric plants tapping water in locations like Arkansas and the Army Corps of Engineers issuing warnings to consumers about water levels.
Water usage for lawns and recreation continued to see restrictions in many areas of the country.
In crop areas, farmers saw further headaches from plant diseases like fungus and crop pests like spider mites on soybeans or rootworms or Japanese beetles in corn that appear in hot weather.
But one silver lining in many areas from weeks of drought was a pleasant surprise: fewer mosquitoes, which lack moist breeding places. "I can live with that part of the drought," said Scott Trout as he left a playground in Westwood, Kansas, with his wife and two children.
By Peter Baker. July 18, 2012
The Obama administration warned Wednesday that food supplies were at risk from the worsening drought afflicting more than half of the country and called on Congress to revive lapsed disaster aid programs.
President Obama reviewed the situation with Tom Vilsack, the agriculture secretary, who called it “the most serious situation” in about 25 years and added that he was praying for rain.
“I get on my knees every day, and I’m saying an extra prayer now,” Mr. Vilsack told reporters at the White House after his discussions with Mr. Obama. “If I had a rain prayer or rain dance I could do, I would do it.”
Mr. Vilsack said 1,297 counties, or roughly a third of those in the nation, had been designated disaster areas. He said 39 more were being added on Wednesday.
More than three-quarters of the nation’s corn and soybean crops are in drought-affected areas, and more than a third of those crops are now rated poor to very poor, Mr. Vilsack said. The price of corn has increased in recent weeks by 38 percent, and the price of beans is up 24 percent. The country may still have the third-largest corn crop in history because earlier good weather encouraged planting, but Mr. Vilsack said the drought would increasefood prices into 2013.
The cost of beef, poultry and pork may go down in the short term because those herds are being liquidated, putting more meat on the market, he said. But those prices will probably rise later in the year or early next year.
He declined to speculate on whether the drought was tied to climate change. “All we know is that right now there are a lot of farmers and ranchers who are struggling,” Mr. Vilsack said, adding that the priority should be “what we can do to help them.”
The administration has lowered the interest rate for emergency loans and has worked to streamline aid programs. Mr. Vilsack said Congress could help by restoring disaster programs that expired last year or by providing other assistance through the Food, Farm and Jobs Act, a pending overhaul of the nation’s nutrition and agriculture program.
Drought spreads, boosts corn to record price by Sam Nelson , July 19, 2012
The worst drought in a half century will continue to plague most of the U.S. Midwest crop region for at least the next 10 days, with only occasional showers providing some relief mainly in the east, an agricultural meteorologist said on Thursday.
America's top two corn and soybean producing states, Iowa and Illinois, are now in the center of the drought as the dryness spreads to the northwest to leech what little moisture remains in already parched soils.
"It looks a little wetter today for Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, but the west is still dry with above-normal temperatures," said Jason Nicholls, meteorologist for AccuWeather.
Rain for the next 10 days will run the gamut from just 40 to 75 percent of normal, with the greatest stress in the western Midwest crop states such as top producer Iowa.
"It got up to 102 to 103 degrees Fahrenheit in Iowa yesterday with no rain, and will be in the 90s today with no rain," Nicholls said.
Rainfall overnight Wednesday left up to 1.5 inches in Chicago and an inch in Rockford, Illinois. "Only isolated rains, no drought buster," he stressed. In addition to rain in northeastern Illinois, showers fell in southern Wisconsin, Indiana and southwestern Michigan.
"It will be cooler on Friday but the heat will be back for the weekend into early next week. The 11- to 15-day forecast shows the ridge moving west over the Rockies so that may help cut back on the heat, but there is still no significant rain in sight," he said.
An atmospheric high pressure ridge has entrenched itself over the heart of the U.S. corn and soybean producing states, preventing moisture from moving into the crop belt, leading to a buildup of heat, causing crop losses and spawning record-high corn and soy prices.
Commodity Weather Group (CWG) on Thursday predicted the heat would last longer next week than had earlier been forecast.
More than half of the Midwest was severely dry.
"The most concern is in west central Indiana, much of Illinois, far northern Missouri, most of Iowa, southwest Minnesota, southern South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas," said CWG meteorologist Joel Widenor.
Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) corn has soared nearly 50 percent in just six weeks to a record high $8.08-1/2 per bushel on Thursday, besting the previous record of $7.99-3/4 set 13 months ago.
CBOT soybeans notched record highs for two days in a row reaching a peak of $17.23 per bushel on Thursday, above the previous record of $16.85-1/2 hit the previous day and up 30 percent since early June.
As the drought, rated the worst since 1956, expands to the northern and western Midwest, areas that had previously been spared, analysts were slashing corn yield estimates by the hour. Some were also starting to cut their forecasts on the number of acres that will be harvested as farmers opt to plow under some of their parched fields to claim insurance.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in its weekly crop progress report issued on Monday, said that just 31 percent of the corn crop was in good to excellent shape, down from 40 percent a week earlier and below analysts' average estimate of 35 percent.
Soybean conditions fell to 34 percent from 40 percent in the good-to- excellent category, likewise below estimates for 35 percent.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said in a report on Monday that, based on the Palmer Drought Index, 55 percent of the contiguous United States was under moderate to extreme drought in June. That is the largest land area in the United States to be affected by a drought since December 1956.
