Yes, I know that Insty already gave you this link but, by gum, its worth re-reading.

Those price increases? Blame OPEC, for causing fuel prices to rise 60% this year, plus increased demand from China and India. At $5 per bushel, the corn in a $3 box of cornflakes “cost 8 cents when bought from the farmer. So farm commodity prices have almost no effect on the retail consumers. But the effect of oil price hikes can be huge.

You see, the point is that we are growing more corn (and wheat and rice etc…) than ever before. The rise in food prices are almost exclusively due to high fuel prices and not by grain prices. You want to be angry at agro-business, be angry at Congress for passing the bone-headed, dead-wrong farm subsidy bill.

Robert Zubrin articulates my argument for ethanol/biofuel so wonderfully. Read his stuff, its not about now its about the near future.

Would I rather see a different feed stock than corn for ethanol production? Of course! Algae is looking to be the best option from both the biofuel as a National Security issue people as well as the enviro-nuts.

Is ethanol the “final solution”? I doubt it, but it is a solution for the short term that will buy us time to make alternatives. The technology exists to run ethanol, in the form of E85 or P-Series fuels, and is cheap to implement (around $100 per vehicle). A Federal Mandate (I feel dirty just saying that, BTW) to require all cars sold in the US to be Flex-Fuel capable, would blunt the hit to the economy when (note: not if) the plug is pulled on oil supplies (most likely from jihadis). We obviously would not be able to flip a switch and run on ethanol overnight, but having all vehicles able to run on ethanol makes a quick comeback from the eventual end of oil supplies possible.

If oil was suddenly cut off, what do you think the effect on food prices (not to mention availability) would be? Think about that the next time you are ready to take a cheap shot at ethanol.