I have chatted about this many times over the last year with many people. The new corn based ethanol craze in the U.S. is one of the worst ideas we came up with. In the long run, it will solve the problem of reduced oil supplies by reducing the food supply and eventually slowing and reducing world population growth. There are better ways to make ethanol, such as sugar cane in Brazil. But even that is not without consequence. Every time we increase our sugar cane consumption, we need to cut down another section of rainforest to plant more crop.
Bottom line: we need to reduce demand.
Here is a recent article from Times Wire Services
U.S. consumers are paying 8% to 10% more for breakfast foods than a year earlier because of rising prices for corn, wheat, milk and other commodities, a U.S. Department of Agriculture economist said.
Commodity inflation "is starting to work its way through the system," USDA economist Ephraim Leibtag said. Food prices overall probably will increase 3.5% to 4% this year, about one percentage point more than usual, he said.
Increased use of corn for ethanol and falling supplies of orange juice and milk are partly responsible for the jump in breakfast-food prices, Leibtag said.
Corn futures have surged 64% in Chicago in the last year, boosting costs to feed livestock and poultry and driving up meat and egg prices.
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