Headlines:
- Agriculture needs ‘transformational change’, World Bank guru says
Global agriculture requires “transformational change” to meet the challenges of growing demand for food, at a time of increasing concern over greenhouse gases – of which it stands to be by far the biggest producer, World Bank expert Marc Sadler said. Mr. Sadler, adviser to the World Bank on agriculture risk and markets, underlined that demand for agricultural commodities was being spurred not just by a growing world population but, thanks to affluence, by the increasing demand for meat – which is relatively inefficient to produce. “It takes a large amount of crop-based calories to produce a relatively small amount of meat based calories,” Mr. Sadler said while in London, estimating at 76% the growth in in world meat consumption between 2005-07 and 2050. The increasing demand for animal protein is in turn spurring growth in needs for feed grains, which while it “always used to be very much a backwater… is becoming increasingly important” as a driver of cereals demand and production dynamics.
Summary:
Despite the rainy weather conditions, the crop planting progress report was responsible to undoing of Corn and Soybean gains from yesterday. July Corn was off 5 cents and July Beans lost 7 cents. The Corn planting report was 13% better than the prior week’s numbers and only 1% behind the 5-year average. Soybean planting was at 53% versus the 32% from the prior week outpacing the 5-year average by 1%. The improved Winter Wheat conditions and weakness in row crops. The Winter Wheat conditions improved 1% overshadowing the wet and cold weather concerns. The crop is 72% headed compared to 74% this time last year. Trading volume was a bit lighter than it has been the last two trading days for Corn. Corn has not been able to string together three consecutive trading days some time. Once it is able to do so that would be a tell-tale sign of potential strength.
