May 11, 2005
Grains, Soybeans Retreat
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 1:18 p.m. ET
CHICAGO (AP) -- Grain and soybean futures declined in early activity Wednesday on the Chicago Board of Trade.
Wheat for July fell 3 1/4 cents to $3.18 1/4 a bushel; July corn fell 1 3/4 cent to $2.06 1/2 a bushel; July oats fell 3/4 cent to $1.32 1/2 a bushel; July soybeans fell 4 3/4 cents to $6.29 1/4 a bushel.
Beef and pork futures increased in early trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
June live cattle rose .15 cent to 86.25 cents a pound; August feeder cattle rose .03 cent to $1.1085 a pound; June lean hogs rose .85 cent to 76.15 cents a pound; July pork bellies rose 1.35 cent to 83.50 cents a pound.
For some reason, I find this comforting. That, despite all the obvious chaos, corruption, treachery, pain and tumult in the world, there is still need to measure bushels of foodstuffs, and price pork bellies, and to quantify the rising of "June lean hogs" or the falling of "July oats."
No, this is not a diary of deep significance (some would say it's not a diary of any significance), nor a diary about agrinomics or the politics of agribusiness: things which I know nothing about.
But the above AP article reads like an extract of found poetry from William Carlos Williams, and reminds me of Sandburg also.