Letters: What's happening with crops and prices?

Mr. Dowd:

Greetings once again from Kentucky!

Have there been any studies or reports on how the currently inflated grain (specifically corn) prices will affect bourbon and other spirit prices in the future?

I read where many of the agave cactus plants have been eliminated in order to plant corn so that outcome is pretty obvious.

-- Carla Griffin, Crestwood, KY

Carla:

Some agri-conomists are raising a caution flag about "potential" price increases due to corn growing, but nothing from credible sources that it will happen beyond the usual inflationary changes.

As to the agave situation, that's essentially an overhyped CNN story that has very little basis in reality. Most tequila fields are estate-owned (i.e., owned by the distillers) and they're in no mood to rip out their plants to put in corn.

Agave takes 8-10 years to mature, so ripping out current fields would be a waste of the last decade's efforts. Plus, the tequila market is on a huge growth spurt and demand is up for higher-priced tequilas.

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