You Know It's A Weird Moment When...

...James Cramer, former Wall Street hedge fund manager, co-founder of TheStreet.com and professionally crazy stock pundit, starts writing about farming. 

In a recent column for New York Magazine titled "There Will Be Corn," Cramer offers a bunch of strategies for cashing in on the new gold-rush in corn and soy generated by ethanol and the increasing demand for meat worldwide.

While I could object to every single thing Cramer says on environmental grounds--and I'd no sooner buy Monsanto stock than stock in Hades--I do enjoy the idea of agriculture, even of the worst sorts, becoming a stock play.

It's not all about the iPods anymore, baby.  We'd better have some Mother Nature in our portfolios, too. 

Comments

[Pam J.]

Is this paragraph, from the Cramer NY mag piece, accurate?

If our government were to show any rational thinking, by the way, we would be making gasoline with soy, not corn. Ethanol is an entirely inefficient method of producing energy, by some estimates consuming almost as much as it generates. It’s a fuel no one really wants. It’s difficult to transport because of its corrosive nature. And subsidizing it is causing runaway food costs and a nasty bout of inflation that’s hitting the poor hardest (soybeans are more efficient as a fuel and easier to produce and distribute). If we came to our senses, Bunge, the soybean company, would be the outfit to bet on. But don’t count on the soybean play; corn’s got too many states’ voters pulling for it.

[Michele Owens]

Pam J.--I know relatively little about this issue. But my husband knows a lot. Check out his Rolling Stone piece on ethanol:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/15635751/ethanol_scam_ethanol_hurts_the_environment_and_is_one_of_americas_biggest_political_boondoggles.

[mb]

Let's not cornfuse Mother Nature with what this cornfused individual is talking about. This is just another stike against Mother Nature. We are now seeing more of our already depleated prairie ecosystems going under the plow due to this corn poned thinking. The prairie chicken is now on the edge of extinction! Ethanol is a sham, Soybeans might be moderately better. I am appalled that one thinks this is a positive step for our environment and agriculture. It is all about the $$$$!!!!!