All of these stories referenced environmental concerns EWG raised about the corn rush, notwithstanding our support for a sustainable biofuels economy.

Phillip Brasher in this morning's Des Moines Register, "What the Corn Rush Means To You":

With grain prices soaring, U.S. farmers are set to seed more land to corn this spring than at any time since 1944, when the government was pressing growers to alleviate wartime food shortages.

Farmers intend to plant 90.5 million acres of corn this spring, a 15 percent increase from 2006, according to a widely anticipated report issued Friday by the U.S. Agriculture Department.

Barring bad weather, that's good news for everyone from grocery shoppers to ethanol producers and hog farmers, because the big crop would help moderate prices for corn and food.

U.S. farmers have faced an international backlash over surging grain and food prices, brought on by the nation's booming fuel ethanol industry. Critics, from meatpackers to environmentalists, have warned that the United States cannot fuel the country's cars while keeping food prices affordable to the poor.

Brasher also mentioned the Mulch contest to guess corn acreage--which, by the way, we'll run again for USDA's June plantings report.

Andy Martin in today's New York Times, a story that fronted the business section and was teased with big color pic of Mississippi corn farmers Webb Bozeman and Justin Tichner getting ready for some nighttime planting ("Farmers Head To Fields To Plant Corn, Lots of It"):

With corn prices expected to weaken, at least temporarily, the report should ease concerns about increases in food costs, which had recently started to tick upward. Corn is primarily used to feed livestock, and some farmers have complained that ethanol is pushing feed corn prices too high.

“We still have some optimism that we will have enough corn,” said Joy Philippi, immediate past president of the National Pork Producers Council. “Everything is going to hit just perfect.

“It looks good today, but we’ll know more in June or July,” said Ms. Philippi, a Nebraska farmer who told a Congressional panel this month that hog farmers were worried that they would not have enough corn because of the demands by ethanol plants.

Pete Harriman and Ben Shouse in the Sioux Falls Argus-Leader, "Corn acres at record-high level: Land devoted to planting spikes 9 percent in S.D.":

South Dakota farmers will plant 400,000 acres more of corn this year. The new report projects 4.9 million acres of corn planting in the state in 2007.

South Dakota is projected to plant 3.6 million acres of soybeans, down from 3.95 million in 2006. Winter wheat seeded last fall is up 31 percent to 1.9 million acres, whereas spring wheat planting is forecast to decline 14 percent to 1.6 million acres.

Chuck Abbott reported for Reuters:

Based on a survey of 86,000 farmers earlier this month, the Agriculture Department projected corn (maize) plantings of 90.454 million acres, which would be the largest acreage since 1944.

With normal weather and yields, the harvest would be 12.5 billion bushels (317 million tonnes) -- 700 million bushels more than the record set in 2004.

"With a medium yield, we could get just about enough corn in the year ahead," said private consultant John Schnittker.