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Page 10 March 23, 2017
2017 Logan County Farm Outlook Magazine
LINCOLN DAILY NEWS
The Ploy:
In a bold move in 1972, the Soviet Union
bought all the surplus grain in the U.S. market
for $500 million through the Continental Grain
Company in an attempt to manipulate prices,
cause bedlam and shortages, and recoup their
$500M through inside trading.
To contain the situation, the federal government
under then President Richard Nixon kept the
sale to the Soviet Union a state secret for three
months, preventing the Soviet plan to recoup
their $500M and succeeded in keeping the
price of corn steady for consumers (although
the price of wheat doubled and the price of
soybeans tripled). Prices in 1973 returned to
their earlier norms as though nothing had ever
happened.
***
Although prices remain too low for
sustainability of farmers in much of the
nation, the yields possible today in Central
Illinois because of the soil, the climate, and
new GMO corn varieties keep Central Illinois
corn producers afloat because their yields
produce extra salable bushels. While farmers
in other parts of the U.S. are going bankrupt,
farmers in Central Illinois are surviving on
their extraordinary yields, undefeated by this
conundrum of corn.