ear

Minnesota くんの貿易赤字もさることながら、今、一番気になるのがアメリカの大干ばつです。

昔は「アメリカがくしゃみをすると、日本は風邪をひく/肺炎になる）」という言い回しがはやったことがありますが（When America sneezes, Japan gets cold/penumonia.）、これは現在の穀物事情にもあてはまります。バターや食用油を皮切りに食肉、石油、ガソリンなどなどオリンピック以降はユーロ危機と相まって、値上がりの秋になること必至でしょう。しばらくは「日経新聞」から目が離せません。

ここのearはトウモロコシ（正確にはmaize）ですね（an ear of corn 「トウモロコシ１本」）。

ある著名な先生の公開授業に出かけたとき、「cornの複数形はcornsだよ！」、「cakeはcakesですね！」と教えておられたのを目の当たりにしたときには口があんぐりとなった記憶があります。（UG）

Drought stretches across America, threatens crops
By Moni Basu, CNN
July 13, 2012 -- Updated 1746 GMT (0146 HKT)

The Department of Agriculture said 1,016 counties in 26 states are natural disaster areas.

(CNN) -- A dry and mild spring led Don Villwock, like all of Indiana's corn and soybean farmers, to plant two weeks early this year. He was hopeful for a bountiful Labor Day harvest.

But the rain didn't fall and June brought blistering heat.

Now, as punishing drought grips the Midwest, Villwock, 61, walks his hard-hit 4,000 acres in southwest Indiana in utter dismay.

Where there should have been tall, dark green, leafy plants, there now stand corn stalks that are waist high or, at best, chest high. They are pale in color and spindly. Fragile. Tired.

Pull back an ear's husk and you find no kernels, he says. With temperatures rising above 95 degrees, the pollen starts to die.

"It's emotionally draining," he said. "The crop got out of the ground very well. We were so optimistic. But maybe a few of us were counting our eggs before they were hatched."

The costs of America's worst drought in 24 years is obvious to Villwock, who has been farming for four decades. They are not so apparent to American consumers -- at least, not yet.

But down the line, people are certain to be paying more for food this year.

Authorities have declared more than 1,000 counties in 26 states as natural disaster areas.
A county is generally qualified as a natural disaster area if it has suffered severe drought for eight consecutive weeks. Farmers are then eligible for low-interest emergency loans from the Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/07/13/us/midwest-drought/index.html