© Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA
A corn farmer holds drought-stricken ears of corn plucked from fields outside Eldorado, Illinois.
In the early spring of 2012, U.S. farmers were on their way to planting some 96 million acres in corn, the most in 75 years. A warm early spring got the crop off to a great start.
Analysts were predicting the largest corn harvest on record.
The U.S. is the leading producer and exporter of corn, the world's feedgrain. At home, corn accounts for four-fifths of the U.S. grain harvest. Internationally, the U.S. corn crop exceeds China's rice and wheat harvests combined. Among the big three grains - corn, wheat and rice - corn is now the leader, with production well above that of wheat and nearly double that of rice.
The corn plant is as sensitive as it is productive. Thirsty and fast-growing, it is vulnerable to both extreme heat and drought. At elevated temperatures, the corn plant, which is normally so productive, goes into thermal shock.
As spring turned into summer, the thermometer began to rise across the Corn Belt. In St. Louis, Missouri, in the southern Corn Belt, the temperature in late June and early July climbed to 100 degrees Fahrenheit or higher 10 days in a row. For the past several weeks, the Corn Belt has been blanketed with dehydrating heat.
Comment: And don't forget Dubya, a psychopath if ever there was one:
Textbook descriptions of George Bush reveal psychopathy, and much worse
Bush is a Psychopath
While some psychopaths do become politicians, for the most part politicians are mere figureheads playing second fiddle to the 'big kahuna psychopaths', éminences grises pulling the strings from the shadows (usually on Wall Street and throughout the international banking system).
Read Political Ponerology to understand the scale and depth of the root problem of everything that is wrong with our world.