Farm incomes bloom, consumers' wallets wilt Heated corn prices...

“See how that pendulum jumps back and forth”

ASSUMPTION, Ill. - Len Corzine zipped up the hooded sweat shirt a John Deere dealer gave him hours earlier, before heading out to survey a plot of land he farms. 'This is one of the most expensive coats you'll ever see because it came with a new combine,' Corzine said. 'It's a $325,000 jacket.' Corzine, an otherwise frugal man who wears tired leather boots and drives a Ford pickup with more than 120,000 miles packed on the odometer, harvests, threshes and cleans enough grain to need a new combine each year. What is different about these days is the spectacular rise in corn prices because of the ethanol boom. Grain farmers' net income in the state stayed above $110,000 for the second straight year in 2007 after settling below $30,000 in 2002, according to University of Illinois researchers. But there is no free lunch. And one result of the farmers' good fortune is that consumers are paying more for food. Dairy, beef and bread prices are all connected in one way or another to the farm economy. Corn is animal feed as well as a source of biofuel, and with corn prices above $4 a bushel - nearly twice the 2005 price - a striking cause-and-effect phenomenon has come home to roost. Some in the food industry are concerned about the impact of ethanol on consumer prices but you won't find much apologizing from most of the folks in farm country. Nor is there an abundance of gloating. They know too well that just as drought follows rain, commodity prices that go up will eventually go down. Read more