<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)">
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Arial Narrow";
panose-1:2 11 5 6 2 2 2 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Malgun Gothic";
panose-1:2 11 5 3 2 0 0 2 0 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:"Microsoft Sans Serif";
panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Webdings;
panose-1:5 3 1 2 1 5 9 6 7 3;}
@font-face
{font-family:"\@Malgun Gothic";
panose-1:2 11 5 3 2 0 0 2 0 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}
h1
{mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-link:"Heading 1 Char";
margin-top:1.8pt;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
font-size:21.5pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext;
font-weight:normal;
font-style:normal;
text-decoration:none none;}
span.Heading1Char
{mso-style-name:"Heading 1 Char";
mso-style-priority:9;
mso-style-link:"Heading 1";
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";
font-weight:bold;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple>
<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal>In today’s NY Times, a story filed from Walters, Okla.
…<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b>November 21, 2008<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='color:#666666;text-transform:uppercase'>The
Food Chain</span></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:#666666;text-transform:
uppercase'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<h1><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Fields of
Grain and Losses <o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal><b>By <a
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/david_streitfeld/index.html?inline=nyt-per"
title="More Articles by David Streitfeld">DAVID STREITFELD</a><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:14.4pt'><span style='color:black'>WALTERS, Okla. — The
farmers said it would not last, and they were right.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:14.4pt'><span style='color:black'>When the price of wheat, corn,
soybeans and just about every other food grown in the ground began leaping
skyward two years ago, farmers were pleased, of course. But generally they refused
to believe that the good times would be permanent. They had seen too many booms
that were inevitably followed by busts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:14.4pt'><span style='color:black'>Now, with the suddenness of a
hailstorm flattening a field, hard times are back on the American farmstead.
The price paid for crops is dropping much faster than the cost of growing them.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:14.4pt'><span style='color:black'>The government reported this week
that the cost of goods and services nationwide fell by a record amount in
October as frantic businesses tried to lure customers. While lower prices are
good for consumers in the short run, a prolonged stretch of <a
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/d/deflation_economics/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier"
title="More articles about deflation.">deflation</a> would wreak havoc as
companies struggled to stay afloat. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:14.4pt'><span style='color:black'>In this lonesome stretch near the
Texas border, farmers are getting an early taste of a deflationary world. They
have finished planting next year’s winter wheat, turning the fields a
brilliant emerald green. But it cost about $6 a bushel in fuel, seed and
fertilizer to put the crop in. That is $1 more than they could sell it for
today, and never mind other expenses like renting land.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:14.4pt'><span style='color:black'>This looming loss sharpens their
regret that they did not unload more of this year’s crop back when they
harvested it in May. They knew the boom would end, but not so soon. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:14.4pt'><span style='color:black'>“I waited all my life for
wheat to go from $4 to $5,” said Jimmy Wayne Kinder, a fourth-generation
farmer. “Then it hit $10, and we were all asking, ‘What are we
going to do?’ ”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:14.4pt'><span style='color:black'>Mr. Kinder, who farms about 5,000
acres with his father, James Kinder Jr., and his brother, Kevin, held onto much
of his wheat, hoping that prices would go still higher. Instead, they plunged.
“I lay in bed at night kicking myself,” Mr. Kinder said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
line-height:14.4pt'><span style='color:black'>The farmers in Walters still have
to worry about drought and floods and grain bugs and army worms, as they have
for decades, but they have new anxieties beyond their control: Manic commodity
markets. A rising dollar that makes their crops more expensive overseas. And
— an urgent new concern this fall — the solvency of their banks. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal>More here ::: <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/business/21farm.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin">http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/business/21farm.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
line-height:150%;font-family:"Malgun Gothic","sans-serif";color:black'>:::
shauna </span></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:
"Malgun Gothic","sans-serif";color:#365F91'>lawyer</span></b><b><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Malgun Gothic","sans-serif";
color:black'> struby</span></b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:150%;
font-family:"Malgun Gothic","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Webdings;
color:green'>P</span><span lang=EN-GB style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:navy'> </span><span lang=EN-GB style='font-size:8.0pt;color:green'>please
don't print this e-mail unless you really need to</span><span style='font-size:
11.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:150%'><span style='font-family:"Arial Narrow","sans-serif";
color:#365F91'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>