Good news to the North and a crappy company

We are suffering a major drought in the Midwest but our neighbors to the North are enjoying an above average yield. From the Canadian Broadcast Company:

Bumper grain crop for Canada forecast amid U.S. drought
Canadian farmers are anticipating large increases in the size of their canola, wheat and barley crops this year, setting them up well to benefit from a drought devastating the agricultural sector south of the border.

"From a historical point of view, that size of crop we would see maybe once in a decade or so," Canadian Wheat board crop expert Bruce Burnett said.

Statistics Canada issued new data Wednesday showing canola is set to hit an all time high this year. Prairie farmers anticipate a record 15.2 million metric tonnes in 2012, besting the record of 14 million set last year. Farmers in all three Prairie provinces anticipate an increase in canola production, with the potential for records in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Other grains are doing well too but a lot of this is because more acres are in production:

Wheat is also forecast to do well, with total production expected to reach 24.8 million tonnes in 2012, up 9.7 per cent from 22.6 million tonnes in 2011. The increase is wheat is largely due to more acres being harvested. The harvested area increased by 11.4 per cent this year to just under 22 million acres, Statistics Canada said. That was enough to offset a decline in output per acre, which has dropped from 42.1 bushels last year to 41.5.

Barley is sharply higher, anticipated to rise 23.8 per cent to nine million tonnes in 2012. That's due to a record 65.1 bushels per acre yield, but also an increase in the number of acres harvested.

Soybean production is anticipated to increase 3.7 per cent to just over 4.4 million tonnes and the production of corn for grain is anticipated to reach just over 11.7 million tonnes, up 9.5 per cent from last year's level.

And the crappy company? From the UK Independent:

We'll make a killing out of food crisis, Glencore trading boss Chris Mahoney boasts
The United Nations, aid agencies and the British Government have lined up to attack the world's largest commodities trading company, Glencore, after it described the current global food crisis and soaring world prices as a "good" business opportunity.

With the US experiencing a rerun of the drought "Dust Bowl" days of the 1930s and Russia suffering a similar food crisis that could see Vladimir Putin's government banning grain exports, the senior economist of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, Concepcion Calpe, told The Independent: "Private companies like Glencore are playing a game that will make them enormous profits."

Ms Calpe said leading international politicians and banks expecting Glencore to back away from trading in potential starvation and hunger in developing nations for "ethical reasons" would be disappointed.

"This won't happen," she said. "So now is the time to change the rules and regulations about how Glencore and other multinationals such as ADM and Monsanto operate. They know this and have been lobbying heavily around the world to water down and halt any reform."

Scum. Archer Daniels Midland is corrupt. Monsanto is just too big for its own good. Nobody will touch them because they spend so much money lobbying the politicians.