Chatham, Ont. — Most underpinnings for higher corn, soybean and wheat prices appear to have fallen away — leaving biodiesel the only area that could drive higher prices. A growth mandate for U.S. ethanol production ends in 2017, and oil prices continue to stagnate well below the highs of a few years ago, according to […] Read more
Corn/soy price ratio favours soybean acres, analyst says
U.S. grains: Soybeans down on profit-taking before USDA data
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures dropped two per cent on Thursday, the steepest decline in 2-1/2 months, on profit-taking tied to lower veg oil prices and extended weather outlooks for rainfall in Argentina, traders and analysts said. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to run the nation’s Environmental […] Read more
CBOT weekly outlook: Technicals trump recent support in soy
CNS Canada — Soybean futures at the Chicago Board of Trade look technically bearish, one U.S. analyst says, but spec-longs may keep support in the market. Corn futures, meanwhile, are expected to continue in a rangebound trend. “Corn is still basically in a trading range; it doesn’t excite people. Beans, they’re all over the place,” […] Read more
ICE weekly outlook: Traders look to StatsCan, U.S. veg oil
CNS Canada — With questions about the size of Western Canada’s canola crop remaining, ICE Futures Canada traders are looking to an upcoming Statistics Canada report for indications on where to move next. Sharp advances in the Chicago Board of Trade soyoil market underpinned canola on the week, and investors are waiting to see if […] Read more
CBOT weekly outlook: Soy, corn still rangebound despite recent gains
CNS Canada — Soybean and corn futures at the Chicago Board of Trade moved higher during the week ended Wednesday, but have little fundamental reason to continue in that direction, according to an analyst. Looking at corn, that market will be stuck in a sideways trading range for the foreseeable future, according to Preston Zacharias, […] Read more
U.S. ups biofuel requirements in win for Big Corn
New York | Reuters — The U.S. government on Wednesday announced finalized targets for biofuel use for next year, requiring that energy companies blend 19.28 billion gallons of renewables into the nation’s fuel supply. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a statement set the target for conventional biofuel, or ethanol, at 15 billion gallons and […] Read more
U.S. biodiesel executives plead guilty over fraud scheme
New York | Reuters — Two men pleaded guilty in a U.S. court on Wednesday to conspiracy, fraud and making false statements related to the U.S. government’s controversial policy designed to boost use of renewable fuels, according to court documents. The case comes in the last four weeks of a contentious U.S. presidential election campaign […] Read more
Canada unveils carbon price, energy-producing provinces unhappy
Reuters — Canada’s federal government on Monday vowed to bring in a minimum price on carbon emissions by 2018, prompting one energy-producing province to threaten legal action and another to demand approval of an oil pipeline in return. Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who took power last November promising to do more to protect the […] Read more
Canadian biofuels aren’t a ‘blunder,’ they’re a success story
Well-designed renewable fuel policies can be good for the environment, the economy, and agricultural producers
Reading Time: 3 minutes In an opinion piece published in the previous edition of this paper (Biofuels are one of our greatest environmental blunders), Gwyn Morgan questions the benefits of biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel. Mr. Morgan would have it that biofuels are a “blunder.” In our opinion, biofuels are a home run for the environment and the rural economy. […] Read more
Biofuels are one of our greatest environmental blunders
Proponents of biofuels are simply refusing to count their true environmental cost
Reading Time: 3 minutes Are biofuels really greener than the fossil fuels they displace? In a recent column I pointed out that electric cars are only as green as the fuel used to generate the electricity they consume. For internal-combustion-powered vehicles, much of the focus has been on trying to reduce carbon emissions by adding ethanol to gasoline and […] Read more
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
