I've seen more farmers fail than futures traders, so I don't think that's a good measuring stick to make your point.
Look, the reason prices are where they are is because you guys are the best farmers in the world and victims of your own success. If you weren't so good at producing more food than the world can consume, and if you didn't have highly capitalized farm conglomerates being able to steadily lower the costs of production, then prices could never be where they are today.
But wait, maybe they could, considering that corn spent 20 years from about 1986 on trading between $2 and $3 a bushel. So maybe that's where its real equilibrium is, because it sure seems like its going back there.
The truth is that there are enough farmers who have figured out how to lower their costs of production and enhance their revenue streams by employing better technology in machinery as well as finance. Those farmers can afford to sell their crops at lower prices to capture more business and that's what they are doing. Ultimately in a market that requires physical delivery, the price is set by the producers, not the traders, The traders just catch the wave and ride it. So there will be plenty of food on America's table even if you are not the one growing it. Because if you do not adapt to use every new method and weapon in the farming arsenal, you will fold up and be replaced by someone who uses those weapons. And the supply of food will keep on rolling in.
