In our Central Illinois community, both Kroger and Walmart are selling eggs below $3.00/dozen. It is difficult to believe that this is news. However in 2025, the retail price of a dozen eggs was high enough to drive the nation’s … Continue reading →
Trade fundamentally seeks out the most efficient combination of resource use. In economic terms, it optimizes the lowest opportunity cost. The US, and more recently Brazil, produce soybeans so well they supply the world. When other nations import soybeans, it … Continue reading →
Food price inflation is still in the news. Eggs have become a national security issue. Well, one would think so from the news. Mostly, the egg-laying chickens are sick and dying. But once we get beyond this egg-industry crisis, we … Continue reading →
One hundred and one years ago, USDA began counting the production of soybeans on US farms. This is not because that is when farmers began harvesting soybeans for grain. No. This is when the quantity of soybean production was sufficient … Continue reading →
In a January 21, LinkedIn post about a 1/19/25 Wall Street Journal Article on food prices rising in December, it was speculated that it is traditional food eating month. If prices were going to rise in an annual cycle, December … Continue reading →
Agricultural byproducts are not produced on demand. The quantity of byproduct production is based on the demand for the higher valued commodity or product. This is not news. But it seems forgotten in the passionate discussions of waste cooking oils … Continue reading →
Who pays a tariff? This was a standard question in my Greenville University undergraduate economics class. Tariffs are taxes, mostly on imported goods. When the United States imposes a 25 percent, or $0.25/$1, tariff on an imported good, an imported … Continue reading →
Food prices have been inflated. Food, as a category in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is no longer driving inflation. The Wall Street Journal reported on November 2, 2024, that grocery distributors are causing food prices to increase and cause … Continue reading →
Number 2 Yellow Corn plays many roles these days. Among them both ‘sustainable savior,’ as well as, ‘destroyer of humanity and the planet.’ That is a pretty broad range. Back in the good old days, 20 years ago, corn was … Continue reading →
