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April 6, 2008

Blame The Environmentalists, A Hoax-swallowing Congress, And A Hoax-swallowing President, For Rising Food Prices

You can thank environmentalists and politicians on both sides of the aisle for rising food prices; their insane, self-defeating, "world-wide food shortage disaster-in-the-making" push for biofuel from corn crusade is putting intolerable pressure on wheat and corn prices, and along with it - the price of food:

... U.S. ethanol production continues to rise amid growing demand for the fuel and as new plants come online, ... The situation is likely to keep pressure on corn prices for both ethanol producers and cattle feeders.

Spurred by federal subsidies, U.S. ethanol production has more than tripled since 2000, hit 6.5 billion gallons last year and is on pace to surpass 9 billion gallons this year.

A sweeping new energy law, signed by President Bush in December, calls for an increase in U.S. ethanol output to 36 billion gallons by 2022.

As we've previously posted, the energy requirements of ethanol production mean that using ethanol as fuel isn't all that much better for the environment than using gasoline; and at best - even if all the corn planted in the United States were used for ethanol, biofuel would still displace only 12 per cent of gasoline consumption. Of the record 93 million acres of corn planted in the United States in 2007, about 20 per cent went to ethanol. Since most of the rest is used to feed animals, and even though the prices of wheat (wheat and corn compete for acres), beef, milk, poultry, and pork are all affected by increases in the cost of corn - energy requirements of ethanol production mean that using ethanol as fuel isn't all that much better for the environment than using gasoline; and at best - even if all the corn planted in the United States were used for ethanol, biofuel would still displace only 12 per cent of gasoline consumption:

... the Left has sold us a pig in a poke. In the course of falling for the environmentalists' delusions, Al Gore's great hoax on the world, and political power, wheat and food costs are soaring as the boom in ethanol production is driving up the price of food ...

[...] The high energy requirements of ethanol production mean that using ethanol as fuel isn't all that much better for the environment than using gasoline. One might think that burning the biofuel would release only the carbon dioxide that corn captures as it grows. But that simplified picture, which has often been conjured up to support the use of ethanol fuel, doesn't withstand closer scrutiny.

... the fossil fuels needed to raise and harvest corn and produce ethanol are responsible for significant carbon emissions. Not only that, but the cultivation of corn also produces two other potent greenhouse gases: nitrous oxide and methane. Polasky calculates that corn-derived ethanol is responsible for greenhouse-gas emissions about 15 to 20 per cent below those associated with gasoline: "The bottom line is that you're getting a slight saving in terms of greenhouse-gas emissions, but not much."

If corn-derived ethanol has had little impact on energy markets and greenhouse-gas emissions, however, its production could have repercussions throughout the agricultural markets. Not only are corn prices up, but so are soybean prices, because farmers planted fewer soybeans to make room for corn.

Unfortunately, we've allowed our government to spend billions on ethanol subsidies, artificially lowering the price, while selling us on the false promise of cheaper fuel from corn and cleaning up the environment. Instead of what the environmentalists and politicians have promised, we've taken a giant leap into a food nightmare; we've sleep walked into a rapidly-emerging world food crisis.

Thanks, Mr President and you numskull Democrats in Congress, for falling for the "Al Gore-created" great hoax of man-made global warming - especially since the world has actually been cooling for the last 5 years. Yes, climate change is a concern, but climate - changes, and man has had damn little to do with it and can do even less to prevent it from changing.

Posted by Abdul at April 6, 2008 8:08 AM