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The Price of Corn
March 30, 2007







The New York Times is running an article entitled, "Farmers to Plant
Most Amount of Corn Since '44."

The article states, "The United States Department of Agriculture
released a report today on prospective plantings that estimated that
American farmers would plant 90.5 million acres of corn in 2007, a 15
percent increase over last year and the most since 1944."

The article explains that this planting will have implications for the
agricultural, food and energy sectors of the economy.

Read a Similar Article!!


Discussion-Starters for Younger Children

  • Ask your students if they can think of any use that cereal might
    have, aside from eating. Encourage them to be creative.
  • Students could develop stories in which cereal is used
    for something other than eating. Or, the entire class
    could develop a story together.

  • If your students could grow any one thing in a garden, what
    would they grow? Why? Ask your students to imagine that
    they, themselves, would not eat anything that they grew. How
    would they decide what to grow?
  • Consider asking students to draw a picture of a garden.
    If possible, consider planting a class garden.

  • Ask your students what it would take for something in the
    garden to grow well. What does it take for a child to grow into
    a strong, healthy adult?
  • Consider comparing what it takes for both vegetation
    and people to grow, using Venn Diagrams.

  • Ask your students to consider how the milk that they drink in
    the morning got to their homes? Where did it come from? How
    many different steps in the process can your students think of?
  • Consider drawing a pictorial/map on the board as your
    students tell you what to put in to demonstrate the path
    that milk takes from a cow to a kitchen.


Discussion-Starters for Older Students

  • Vocabulary Terms to Discuss: Bolstered; Prospective;
    Implications; and, Commodity.

  • Ask your students how they think the amount of corn planted
    influences the economy of the United States. What other kinds
    of products that are not usually thought of in an economic
    sense have significant influence in the economy? According to
    the article, the amount of acreage devoted to cotton will fall
    20% if farmers plant as much corn as they plan. How might
    this reduction in the amount of cotton grown effect people in
    the United States?
  • Tell your students to imagine that they are economic
    advisors to the President. They have been asked to
    prepare a memo explaining the ramifications of an
    increased corn planting on the economy. They might
    develop these memos in groups of two or three.

  • According to the article, Citigroup analyst David Driscoll said,
    “The moral of the story is, if you dangle money in front of
    farmers, they take it." Do your students think that this moral
    can be applied to people who are not farmers as well?
    Why/why not? Is there anything that your students would not
    do for all of the money in the world? What? Why wouldn't they
    do this?
  • This discussion might prompt an interesting class
    discussion.

  • The next presidential election is less than two years away. If
    your students were farmers, what three questions would they
    ask the candidates if they had the opportunity? Why would they
    ask these questions?
  • Consider asking students to write these questions. After
    the questions are written other students might speculate
    on how the candidates would answer them.
    Alternatively, you could email the questions to the
    candidates' campaign offices. Students could look up
    their addresses.
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(C) 2007, Andrew Pass Educational Services, LLC.