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The price of corn

HMTKSteveHMTKSteve
edited April 2008 in Everything Else
I'm looking for a source online for the historical price of corn. All I can find is futures pricing and the few sites that claim to have past prices all want big bucks for the data.

I'm working on an idea for an article but I need my data before I write the article.

Comments

  • That Which YoesThat Which Yoes
    Um, Time Magazine about three-four weeks ago had their cover article about the hypocracy of biofuels and may have mentioned corn's prices.
  • ΣπεκωσποκΣπεκωσποκ
    edited April 2008
    You might be able to find records of corn prices through the AAA's subsidy prices, although that would only provide 3 years of prices.
    Post edited by Σπεκωσποκ on
  • HMTKSteveHMTKSteve
    Um, Time Magazine about three-four weeks ago had their cover article about the hypocracy of biofuels and may have mentioned corn's prices.
    That's the gist of the article I was going to write. From what I am seeing the price of corn is going up just as fast as the price of oil. I was hoping to find enough data to chart the two together.

    The central idea of the article is that OPEC controls the price of oil but the US controls the price of food. Because oil is going up the US is turning food into fuel which causes the price of food to go up at the same rate oil is going up.

    From the data I have been able to track down it looks like over the last six months oil has nearly doubled in price and so has corn. Also corn stayed mostly flat between 2003 and 2006. It was in 2006 that the price began to rise opening the year about $2.75 and closing over $4. It stayed fairly steady through 2007 and now it is over $6.

    12 months ago oil was about $65 per barrel and it just spiked over $120.

    I need exact price data and to see just what happened in 2006 to trigger the sudden spike in prices as well as tie it in to what oil was trading at during that time.
  • GunfireGunfire
    Heh. The only alternative fuel that makes any semblance of sense at this point is biodiesel, and that only if you have ready access to used vegetable oil.
  • ......
    Heh. The only alternative fuel that makes any semblance of sense at this point is biodiesel, and that only if you have ready access to used vegetable oil.
    Fast food restaurants have a lot of used oil. And seeing as there are a shitton of fast food restaurants in the US, there are little problems, eh?
  • Dr. TimoDr. Timo
    edited April 2008
    @Steve:
    Have you taken into consideration that corn prices follow oil prices because corn production requires a lot of oil? Once you take land ownership, equipment and stock seed out, the rest (planting, harvesting, spraying, transportation, handling) all require oil. Even your own "wages" as a farmer depend on oil since you need to pay yourself more to compensate for the general increase in living cost that a higher gas price induces.
    Post edited by Dr. Timo on
  • HMTKSteveHMTKSteve
    @Steve:
    Have you taken into consideration that corn prices follow oil prices because corn production requires a lot of oil? Once you take land ownership, equipment and stock seed out, the rest (planting, harvesting, spraying, transportation, handling) all require oil. Even your own "wages" as a farmer depend on oil since you need to pay yourself more to compensate for the general increase in living cost that a higher gas price induces.
    Yes, that's why I need to see why corn prices stayed flat between 2003 -> 2006 while oil was increasing.
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