<p class="\&quot;times\&quot;">At the risk of sounding like an installment of the morning farm and ranch story I\'d like to talk about corn farming.&nbsp;</p><p class="\&quot;times\&quot;">There was a number tucked into a&nbsp;story Monday about the latest crop projection that suggest there\'s a limit to how much ethanol this country can produce using current technology.&nbsp; The recent surge in corn prices has been blamed on reduced harvests due to flooding, and that explains part of it&nbsp; But it all can\'t be blamed on that disaster.</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: small;">In a bad news story about world oil consumption dropping like a rock due to the hard times, there was a reminder that certain things don't change. Down in this Houston Chronicle </span><a href="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6156431.html"><span style="font-size: small;">story</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> is this tidbit - U.S. drivers have regained their thirst for gasoline.</span></span></p> <p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Verdana;">Gasoline demand for the week ending Dec. 5 dipped 0.3 percent compared with the previous week, despite lower prices at the pump, according to the MasterCard Spending Pulse report. But demand was actually up slightly compared with the same week a year ago. That was the first time since April that demand in 2008 outpaced last year's consumption.</span>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-size: small; font-family: verdana;">This is a striking contrast to the totals back when gasoline prices were around $4 a gallon and the survey showed purchases off by around 4 percent.&nbsp;I'll admit this isn't exactly a surprising change. Americans love a screaming bargain. I passed a couple Houston gasoline stations offering regular for $1.49 a gallon. Based on the current benchmark futures price for unleaded that's likely to become common.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small; font-family: verdana;">&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: small; font-family: verdana;">At a time when Wal-Mart is the retailer that's doing the best because of everyday low prices, the same discount mojo is working for gas stations.</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small; font-family: verdana;">&nbsp;</span><span style="font-size: small; font-family: verdana;">And it's likely to be around for a while. The <a href="http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/contents.html">EIA</a> guesstimate of fuel prices for the coming year is that gasoline prices will average $2.03 a gallon nationally in the coming year.</span><span style="font-size: small; font-family: verdana;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small; font-family: verdana;">But based on that report there's little else that suggests a comeback for energy, with a large drop in world petroleum demand in 2009.</span>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-size: small; font-family: verdana;">This <a href="http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=70486">story</a> in Rigzone points out the last year that went negative on worldwide petroleum demand was 1983, which was the start of the bust, and decades of low prices.</span><span style="font-size: small; font-family: verdana;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small; font-family: verdana;">So the numbers all suggest energy will stay down, which is hard on the Houston economy, but are these experts - who were overly optimistic last year - too pessimistic now?</span></p>

I’ve found a story that’s a sign to me that things could get better, that markets can correct themselves, and perhaps the price of a good beer will go down. The good news first came in a post on BNET pointing out that the price of hops has gone down. That’s a small cause for celebration because the shortage of hops set off a price frenzy in the past year reminiscent of the panic in the oil business, with but with an even bigger price jump. http://industry.bnet.com/food/1000369/brewers-toast-big-hop-crop/ Twelve to 18 months ago, craft brewers were struggling with skyrocketing prices for hops, which sent microbrew prices soaring by a dollar or more per six-pack. The shortage was due to some macro factors — the introduction of a new, more-potent variety of hops meant brewers needed less, causing a collapse in demand that led U.S. farmers to quit growing the crop earlier this decade; a poor 2007 crop in Europe; and growing demand for beer in China. There was also some micro ones, such as a big 2006 warehouse fire that wiped out reserves and caused a panic. But the rising prices, which pushed up the price of microbrew six packs by a buck or more, inspired farmers to do as market economists say should do and plant more hops, based on this coverage from Washington State, which is to hops what Kansas is to wheat. http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/ci_11458956 "The 2008 harvest was a good year," said Don Tubbs, brewing manager for the Mendocino Brewing Co. "(For) the existing hops, the yield was good. The bumper crops they put in this year, the new ones, produced hops this year. Usually it takes two to three years to get some good hops in. . . but the bumper crops were good and they harvested that, so the shortage is over." I can’t really celebrate this as an altogether good thing from a consumer standpoint. The story says the price paid for hops for a lot of brewers will remain high because during the height of the panic over shortages they signed deals to lock in supplies for years to come. So I have another reason to curse futures markets. And as a consumer know that when prices go up they tend to stay that way. I’ll do what I can to enforce price discipline by being cheap and given the way the economy is going there might be a lot of other folks out there doing the same. During my searches I ran across an extensive, and sometimes poetic list of hops on the Bear Advocate site. There I was reminded of the noble role these little flowers impart in adding the bitterness in beer: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/101/hops.php Humulus Lupulus (hops) are the flowering cone of a perennial vining plant and a cousin of the cannabis variety (sorry no THC in this stuff) that typically thrives in climates similar to the ones that grapes do. Hops are the age old seasoning of the beer, the liquid gargoyles who ward-off spoilage from wild bacteria and bringers of balance to sweet malts. They also lend a hand in head retention, help to clear beer (acting as a natural filter) and please the palate by imparting their unique characters and flavours. Basically, hops put the "bitter" in beer. That there is a science to all this stuff: Beer bitterness is expressed as International Bitterness Units (IBUs), which represent a measurement of the intensity of the bitterness of the beer. And while wine lovers talk endlessly about the taste of the land, and history, that’s all here as well in the many many different hops, some of which benefit from government research, I can only hope will see more funding as the administration tries to build a new and better economy. The Ahtanum vriety of hops was first raised in an area near Yakima, Washington, where the first hop far was established in 1869 by Charles Carpenter. Cascade hops were the first commercial hop from the USDA-ARS breeding program. Cascade is often used in highly hopped West Coast ales that have a citrus-floral hop character. And finally that British people have a gift for silly names. Fuggle is English variety going back to 1861. It reached its peak in the U.K. in 1949 when 78% of the English crops were grown as Fuggle. I figure I can always get a laugh just by saying the word fuggle, but would any of you object?