Commodities: EPA Wants to Charge Fees Livestock

Livestock as a commodity will suffer under asinine EPA initiative

The nuts are definitely running the asylum if the proposed, moronic, federal initiative to charge huge fees to farmers or ranchers for each animal they have actually passes.

Parameters for the fees would be farms with over 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200hogs. The price tag for each one: $20 for each hog; $87.50 per beef cattle; and $175 for each dairy cow.

A significant number of livestock owners have said if the proposal were to go forward, it would effectively bankrupt them, which is evidently what some of the nutty environmentalists want.

Not only would it bankrupt numerous farmers and ranchers, but the costs would raise consumer prices so high it would be extraordinary.

This is of course of the human-haters and earth worshippers want. They want to ram their vegan/vegetarian lifestyle down the throat of the rest of the citizens in the U.S.

The reason given behind this potential atrocity is the animals pollute the air with the belches and gas. I'm not kidding, that's what's behind this idiocy.

According to Ken Hamilton, executive vice president of the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, the average cost to just a medium-sized cattle ranch would be from $30,000 to $40,000 a year.

According to EPA spokesman Nick Butterfield, the fee would fall under the federal Clean Air act. With a straight face he added they're reviewing the comments of the public before any further steps are taken.

Comments of the public? Let's see. Do we want to pay higher prices for our meat? Do we want to resort to less safe meat from foreign countries? How about importing our milk from China? No? Ok. The public has spoken.

As a matter of fact, the energy and time I've had to take to waste my time writing about this drivel should be charged to the EPA. Where can I send them my invoice?

It looks like the EPA needs to be abolished if it's going to punish commodites, and ultimately people, through these horrible ideas.

Commodities: Agriculture Futures Mixed

On the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) results were mixed for grain commodities, as Wheat for December delivery lost 1.5 cents to $5.21 a bushel; December oats lost 3.5 cents to $2.345 a bushel; December corn fell 2.5 cents to $3.755 a bushel; and November soybeans rose 12.25 cents to $9.1175 a bushel.

Results for beef futures were also mixed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, with October live cattle lost 0.5 cent to 92.8 cents a pound; October feeder cattle rose 0.08 cent to 98.95 cents a pound; October lean hogs advanced 0.58 cent to 55.4 cents a pound; and February pork bellies gained 2.3 cents to 86.1 cents a pound.

Even with all the downward pressures, grain commodities should perform well over the long term, as investors start to buy natural resources again, as demand inevitably increases.