DISQUS

AlexSchleber · 1 year ago

Marc: Yes, the price of oil has an effect via transportation costs and indirectly the cost of fertilizers (which are natural-gas-based in many cases, the price of which tends to fluctuate with the price of oil for the most part).

... Yes, the Chinese and Indian emerging middle classes are consuming more meats/dairy, which requires more feed. But at least half of the run-up in grains and everything they connect to has been caused by the INSANE ethanol subsidies.

Your tax dollars (couldn't get an authoritative total number, but it's $7 Billion in Federal subsidies alone in '07) are being spent to incentivise this madness, which in turn is costing you probably on the order of $1,000 more per person in your household per year. For a household of 4, that's a $4,000 tax, pure and simple.

And it wasn't the Democrats either, this was instituted in 2005. Under the guise of an Eco-friendly program and energy independence, they are giving billions to mostly well-to-do agri-businesses and Archer Daniels Midland.

Notice that the much more efficient bio-fuel from Sugar Cane has protective tariffs against it to "protect" the U.S. Sugar Cane industry.

"America's ethanol programme is a product of government subsidies.
There are more than 200 different kinds, as well as a 54 cents-a-gallon
tariff on imported ethanol. That keeps out greener Brazilian ethanol,
which is made from sugar rather than maize. Federal subsidies alone
cost $7 billion a year (equal to around $1.90 a gallon)."

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story...

Yet another distortion... it's all madness, Ethanol from corn is about as far from a solution to our energy issues as there is. It doesn't work energetically.

DOESN'T WORK.

(read why it doesn't work here: http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9926823-54.htm... )

Anyone investing money into it's production is doing this only because of the gov't subsidies.

1/3 of the U.S. corn crop is now being wasted on this
( http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story... )

and the prices of all other grains have been driven up by this as well (wheat and soybeans especially), driving up the cost of staples and feed for everything (think grains fed to chickens, high-fructose corn syrups, etc. etc.). There is hardly a food out there not affected by this.

Perfectly good food is being turned into inefficient fuel...

In poor countries, there are already food riots because these people subsist on $1/day. They are hit the most directly.

If this is allowed to go for long, this will further exacerbate the issues with radicalization that is already hurting U.S. interests. Talk about losing "hearts and minds"...

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.c...

Pass this on to your friends, everyone needs to know about this madness. I cannot vote in this country, but you should all write your Congress(wo)men and demand that this idiocy stop, and soon.

Best - Alex