[lbo-talk] Cuba's painful transition from sugar economy

[Gar Lipow]

On 8/27/05, Michael Perelman <michael at ecst.csuchico.edu> wrote:
> > But the numbers on corn don't support your argument at all. US corn
> > yields per hectare were 10.07 tonnes, more than twice the world
> > average (and up considerably from your 8.0 number from 1988). No
> > other country comes close. Canada approaches 84% of US yields, but
> > with only a fraction of the area the US devotes to corn.
> >
> > You try to make the US sound like a bit of a slouch, but it's not
> > really. Unless I'm missing something in reading these numbers.

Interestingly enough Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN
supports Michael's argumentson wheat. On rice  we do seem to have
yield above world average and most areas though we are not at the very
top. On corn we seem to be surpassed by only a very few nations.
(source links below table)

            |  World|         U.S.    |  Asia (Developed)|   
Industrialized| EU,
Wheat  |  29,065 |     29,029|  36,242                 | 36,082       

    | 58,537
rice       |40,038   |77,808     |64,150                   |70,09     

         | 67,485
Corn      |49,066  |100,650   |158,263                 |93,112        

    | 83,556

wheat:http://tinyurl.com/9n5ky
rice: http://tinyurl.com/bqfeo
corn: http://tinyurl.com/b447w

The exceptions  who surpass us in rice

 Australia	82,308
Egypt	96,850
Honduras	83,650

Bottom line we are productive - but not unmatched. And we could be
just as produtive, per acre and per person hour with a lot fewer
deadly inputs.

The exceptions who surpass us in corn  (including developed Asia)
Belgium	122,246
Chile	110,678
Israel	160,000
Kuwait	200,000
New Zealand	113,333
Qatar	125,926