Commodity Corner
Views on commodities and energy
Sugar shortage spawns sweet jokes from late-night comedian
By Christopher Doering The surge in sugar prices and potential risk of a shortage has provided some sweet fodder for one late-night comedian who can’t help but poke fun at the attention the tasty ingredient is receiving. Stephen Colbert, who hosts the Colbert Report on Comedy Central, spent part of his show this week lamenting the sugar crisis. After showing a montage of television clips about the sugar situation, Colbert proceeded to break a glass cover — similar to one containing a fire extinguisher — and pulled out a bag of sugar, which he dosed all over himself. “Oh my God, there’s a sugar shortage,” said Colbert. “How could this happen. Well, like interstate highways and potable water it’s the government’s fault.” Large U.S. food companies, including Kraft Foods, General Mills Inc and Hershey Co, have been pushing the Obama administration to ease sugar import curbs, citing forecasts for unprecedented sugar shortages that could result in higher retail prices and possible job losses. In a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack dated Aug. 5, the companies and other groups warned that “our nation will virtually run out of sugar,” if a USDA forecast is accurate. “Can you imagine an America with no sugar?” said Colbert. “Juice would contain nothing but 10 percent juice and we’d all be eating uncaramelized apples. What are we going to do?”
For more information on the sugar shortage, click here.
If only trade talks went this quick…
Call it the Congressional version of the lightning round.
Ron Kirk, the Obama administration’s choice for U.S. Trade Representative, had a rapid-fire confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Monday that lasted no longer than 45 minutes.
“Exhilarating,” was how Kirk, a former Dallas mayor, described the quick experience, fittingly, in one word.
Senators had to compress the session to attend a vote on amendments to the omnibus spending bill.
Kirk started off by telling senators “It’s been a long and strange journey getting to this point,” but didn’t even make it through a shortened version of prepared remarks before he was urged by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus to wrap it up.
“I’m going to ask about four questions, and if you don’t mind, I’d like about 45-second answers,” Baucus told Kirk. He proceeded to ask how Kirk would promote bipartisanship on trade issues, enforce the U.S.-Canada softwood lumber deal, eliminate sanitary and phytosanitary barrier for farm goods, and whether a bilateral trade agreement with Panama was closer to passage than pending deals with Colombia and South Korea.
Baucus alloted Kirk “23 seconds” to explain how he would build support for trade among America’s middle class, which views deals as bad for the country, and later, “15 seconds” to talk about how he would enforce deals.
from Environment Forum:
From Suds to Sunshine in Brooklyn
A green contracting outfit based in a former Brooklyn brewery says it's the first business in a major U.S. city that can sell power back to the grid that it generates from the sun.
New York state gave Big Sue, LLC, which has about 3,500 square feet of solar panels on its roof, the OK to sell any extra power it generates from the panels back to the grid.
For years, homeowners who have put solar panels on their roofs have been able to sell a bit of solar power back to the grid, which has helped them deal with the big costs of buying and installing the panels. For homeowners it can take 8 to 12 years to break even on the initial investment.
New York businesses, which have shorter break-even times on their solar investments due to greater availability of tax breaks and incentives, have had to wait until now to get net-metering rights.
But eventually commercial net-metering could help New York deal with growing power demand. Gov. David Paterson said in a press release about Big Sue that businesses with solar net-metering will "relieve stress on New York City's overburdened" power grid.
David Buckner, the president of Solar Energy Systems, who installed Big Sue's solar panels, said he has 15 other commercial projects lined up for net-metering, including a bicycle manufacturer and a perfume bottle top maker. (Full disclosure: Solar Energy Systems' COO is the husband of a colleague of mine.)
Small manufacturers stand to gain the most from net-metering because of the way the law is written, he said. At least 35 other businesses in the region are lining up for net-metering with other solar installers.
Obamamania missing in farm country
Many U.S. farmers don’t have confidence in President-elect Barack Obama, with many fearing the new administration will not be receptive to the needs of American farmers and ranchers.
A Reuters straw poll of more than 800 farmers at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual meeting in San Antonio found 72 percent of the respondents did not believe Obama would have the best interest of the farmer in mind.
Instead of helping U.S. sectors that produce goods for the country, such as farmers, several mentioned Obama would focus on programs that work to even out income and help those that are seeking something from the government.
U.S. farmers, who tend to be social and fiscal conservatives, have traditionally supported Republicans. One Illinois farmer said he was “not necessarily a Republican beating a drum here but… I just don’t have the confidence in him that I probably should have.”
The Farm Bureau, the nation’s largest farm group, representing growers and ranchers, has adopted a more optimistic tone. Bob Stallman, president of the group, said Obama made several positive comments toward agriculture during the campaign and has expressed a need to have a healthy farm economy.
– Christopher Doering
Photo: President-elect Barack Obama tastes some peaches during a campaign stop at a farmers market in Greensboro, North Carolina, on August 20, 2008. REUTERS/Jim Young
The american farmer has been left out, I’m talking about the mom and pop small farmers. The large ag farmers reap many thousands of dollars of subsidies while the small farm family’s loose money because they cannot afford fuel, fertilizer,seed or insurance!
The cost of keeping up equipment, replacing older equipment, have driven the small producers into bankruptsy as these cost have quad drippled in the last 10 years.
The small independent farms simply can’t afford to buy new equipment. The needs that come from govt laws, to be able to comply need to be overhauled!
The small family farms are loosing the younger generation, to leave the farming business for jobs in the bigger cities as they can’t make a living on the family farm! As we loose these young farmers the farms are sold to developers for more homes for people that want to get away from the cities, yet be able to commute to jobs that are found in the industrial cities.
We are losing the land and the people that feed the world!
I wonder, are there any sugar reserves in Afghanistan ?