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Low Water - Slow Boats
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The following pictures are of the Mississippi from this year and last. The 2012 drought has lowered the river level.
2011
2012
The water level is down as much as 40 feet from a year ago.
Its so dry, grass is growing on the sandbanks.
The low water is raising hell with the river traffic. Some headlines:
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How big a deal is this? Big. ABC put the potential hit to the economy at $300Mn a day. As many as 400k jobs are in play. The have a quote from the Army Corps of Engineers suggesting the problem is not going away anytime soon.
I was surprised to learn that 90% of the nation's waterborne commercial deliveries are on the Mississippi.
The Army Corps got its forecast of "no relief" from NOAA. The 30 day forecast shows a continuation of the dry conditions in the center of the country. There is no reason to be optimistic looking at the 90 day outlook.
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The only winners in this story are the rail-roads. Everyone else will pay a bit more. In some cases there might be shortages (rock salt/chemicals up north). Global grain, corn and bean supplies may get disrupted. Add another few percent to the already skyrocketing price of raw food stocks.
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what --50% !?
hard to believe, link please.
this seems significant if true.
http://domesticfuel.com/2012/06/15/hurdle-cleared-for-sale-of-15-ethanol-blends/
Some of the groups representing small engine manufacturers are stating that putting 15% in your lawnmower, chainsaws, etc. will damage if not destroy them. I've personally had ethanol fuels eat the crap out of cheap Chinese engines on ATV's, trimmers, log splitter, etc. and I won't even use it in my $400 Husky chainsaw...
http://pure-gas.org/ Has lists of stations selling NE(non-ethanol) gas. I use it in all my small engines now and occasionally fill up my truck with it. It's the only thing that turns off the 'Check Engine' light now. Been that way for 6 months. It drives like a new vehicle! But there is a price penalty of about .20 or more per gallon over Premium.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw_jU_WEK60
old man river - jim croce
where are the water pipeline infrastructure jobs?
"The only winners in this story are the rail-roads."
'Crazy' Mr. Buffet!
As the Michigan drought has broken somewhat, there has been talk of farmers trying to keep as much of the crop in state as possible. The entire tart cherry crop was lost in the spring due to the early heat and then freeze and the farmers markets have been downright depressing lately. Things seem to be picking up a little, but mainly the fall crops which are maturing early. Will be interesting to see if some farmers and States start to say "all mine bitchez".
Not to worry. It's always raining somewhere.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/08/22/crop-yield-wheat-canola.html
I can confirm this as my operation is coming under similar pressure. We farm between 25,000-40,000 acres, depending on the crop rotation and other factors. We are on the low-end this year as the change in weather patterns was pretty clear, to us anyway.
I am hearing a lot of promises of more paper from the my local government officials as they face increasing chances of muni default, higher unemployment and many angry and hungry voters as a result.
Perhaps we need to demand gold in exchange instead of paper promises? Let's see what was one factor that lead to WWI again?
Farmers and manufacters deal with absolutes as a real product has to actually be delivered, unlike eCONomics.
Interesting times we live in indeed.
If you demanded gold instead of "legal tender," I can almost assure you that a state of emergency would be declared, and your property confiscated as per the latest batch of Executive Orders.
Democrats and other morons voted for the African muslim. What are Africans good at? Running, corruption, pestilence and famine.
He can teach us all about African farming and killing white farmers in Rhodesia and South Africa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Horsemen_of_the_Apocalypse
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death
The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse.
This would be Bernake, Obama, Blankfein & Jamie Dimon.
Freddie, Freddie, Freddie,
Didn't anyone give you the memo?
"It won't make a difference which political party gets the white house or control of congress in the next election. It just doesn't matter any more and if you think it does, then you are sadly ignorant of the facts, hopelessly naive, or tragically stupid." - Dave from Denver
I'll give you credit for one thing, you're consistently stupid.
Why do you seek to discredit this site with your constant divide and conquer rhetoric? Does it pay well, or is this a personal vendetta against the puppet we call Obummer?
Whatever your goals are, I can guarantee your actions do not achieve them.
You see, the louder you yell, the quieter your voice becomes.
The afternoon .gov shills arriving ontime for their hero allah.
You really need to watch more TV.
Hollywood and the corporate media love you.
Idea for a new reality TV show: put Freddie with his "global muslimism conspiracy" and AnAnonymous with his "US citizenism" into a small room together, force them to view a rotating selection of US corporate owned news media television, and then observe the ensuing "discussion". In small doses, it would be genuinely entertaining. Two complete half wits whose combined cognitive abilities don't add up to anything near a full wit.
"Why do you seek to discredit this site with your constant divide and conquer rhetoric?"
Yep. He fogot to throw some of the blame in there for us evil Jews too.
the good news is small farmers have the loving eyes of government watching their every move with predator drones
while the table is increasingly tipped in favor of "just growin that shit in china" (etc.) on theregulatory and cost structure side
can you say Fodd Safety and Stabilization Act? look it up
Weisbrot, I cannot find this term on WikiPedia: "Food Safety and Stabilization Act." What am I doing incorrectly?
I shall try again on Google and DuckDuckGo.com.
== Paul D. Bain
paulbain@PObox.com
======= ADDENDUM ===========
OK, I found it. The Act is not yet an act because it is still merely a bill, to wit, legislation pending before Congress. See HR 875.
I think it's actually the Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA)
and according to this it was signed into law in 2011:
Don't worry about that, Snopes sez it's no big deal. /s
Snopes = A couple of Politically motived idiots telling everyone that they are wrong without proving that they are actually wrong.
yea snopes is such a honey pot its ridiculous, like winne the pooh on crack ridiculous mind you
Very aware of this. It is important for smaller growers to manage their business accordingly ( i.e. don't get in financial trouble). In my case, I am allied with a local Co-op made up of mostly veterans. Can you say second amendment?
Any of those truckloads of hollowpoint bullets headed to government agencies near you?
Let me simply answer your question with another. Do you know who is on your local SWAT team?
allied with a local Co-op made up of mostly veterans
AWESOME :)
CSX is the clear winner of all of this. Doubtless.
And world food prices go up, then that hits the third world hardest. That always ends up going well. /sarc
Not to worry, the One has ordered up a hurricane to drown the evil Ryan in Tampa and then fill up the Missisippi river basin.
(Sigh) is there nothing this "sort of a God" can't do? ;-)
Correct, one bet that Buffet is still holding on to.