Leadership: As drought destroys the U.S. corn crop and drives
prices skyward, the U.S. now buys corn from Brazil and faces the
end of its prized role as the world's top food supplier. It's
time to scrap the ethanol mandate. There's a whiff of foreboding
about an already-economically enfeebled U.S. now losing its
crown as the nation whose corn harvest could feed the world. The
worst drought since 1956 has hit 88% of the U.S. corn crop and
is driving corn prices sharply higher. For the first time, U.S.
agricultural companies are importing corn from Brazil — the
equivalent of Saudi Arabia importing oil, as the Financial Times
noted. The Mayan calendar forecasts apocalypse in 2012. By
creepy coincidence, the mighty Mayan empire itself fell due to a
corn drought. But the drought affecting the U.S. is entirely due
to market dynamics. Droughts happen all the time. Under normal
market conditions, crops from elsewhere pick up the slack.
There's nothing wrong with importing from Brazil, but it's a
strange dynamic becau