Export volume at Port of Oakland, Calif., hit a three-year high in October, with year-to-date shipments up 10% over 2015, The Packer reports. Agricultural commodities accounted for 40% of the outbound volume through the port, which handles exports from California’s...
Type Casting?
Corn ethanol is cast as a culprit in rising food prices (again) A Financial Times report from the Commodity Markets Council annual meeting (this week in Palm Beach) notes that Dodd-Frank financial system reforms top the list of worries for the commodities futures...
Sizing up the Usual Suspects
Sorting out possible causes as yet another global food crisis looms The world’s poorest are at risk of being priced out of the market for food because … we’re burning corn and other staple crops for biofuel … the rising middle classes in the BRICs and beyond are...
Pro-Poor Biofuel
Side-stepping the food-or-fuel choice by cultivating cassava It seemed like a good idea at the time: Reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and start weaning the gasoline-dependent by phasing in (with a mix of subsidies and mandates) the use of ethanol as motor fuel. The...