MARKETING

d e s k
Tom Button is editor of Country Guide magazine
When a thing is right
Grain markets are acting exactly as they
should. The commodity prices we’re seeing
this fall are a true reflection of the actual
value of the grains and oilseeds that our
farms are producing. As the livestock sector
adjusts, soon the exchanges will show a truer
valuation of our animal production as well.
There is nothing in today’s markets for
agriculture to apologize about, or for that
matter to gloat over either. It’s cold reality.
The world is recognizing the wealth that
farmers create. Full stop.
We’ve always known food makes life
possible, but increasingly food is valued
because it makes quality of life possible too,
enabling billions of people for instance to
consume meat and dairy. Yes, it comes at a
cost, but the benefit is so great, the cost is
worth bearing. That is what the market is
telling us.
Of course, we’ve also always known
that farmers don’t only produce food.
Farmers have always produced leather and
wool and cotton too, as well as lubricants
and paint ingredients and all manner of
processed and industrialized inputs.
Now, agriculture produces ethanol as
well, and some analysts — including some
that we quote in this issue — would have
us believe that this is somehow new fangled
and wrong headed, and that ethanol is only
a good idea in times of depressed prices.
They couldn’t be more wrong. The
world has a choice, either to cope with peak
oil by slashing and rationing our energy use,
or to commit to a bold but realistic vision
of a future where more energy is sustain-
ably produced, and where energy won’t be
a constraint that prevents us from thriving.
There is a cost to ethanol. Who would
deny it? But there is a benefit too in the lives
it saves and the lives it enhances.
Pumping more barrels to replace the fuel
we should be producing from corn would
only mean borrowing even more from the
future, using petroleum reserves that should
be held back for coming years so we can
avoid paying our share of the price now.
Nor does anyone know how long the
bull market will last. It won’t last forever.
We know that because we know high
prices encourage high production. This is
what they are meant to do, and we can be
confident we will see the world’s farmers
respond to today’s markets with enormous
enthusiasm and skill.
We also know that in order to get to
the point where they can prosper, today’s
farms have wrestled with lean times.
Often, they have wrestled for generations,
using only their grit to pull them through
the long, tough hauls between the occasional
years of stronger returns. And it
isn’t as if today’s prices are shielding farmers
from the risk of poor decisions. Every
farmer who looks at the price of the farm
down the road, or the cost of a new combine,
knows the intimate meaning of risk.
But be sure to find some time away
from the decision-making this year. Celebrate
your success. When a thing is right,
say it. I’m at 519-674-1449, or email me
at tom.button@fbcpublishing.com. Let me
know what you’re thinking.
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Vol. 131 No. 10
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ISSN 0847-9178
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