Since the spring, wheat prices have doubled and almost every crop under the sun — maize, milk, oilseeds, you name it—is at or near a peak in nominal terms. ... Even in real terms, prices have jumped by 75% since 2005. ...Congressman Etheridge, are you listening?
But the rise in prices is also the self-inflicted result of America's reckless ethanol subsidies. This year biofuels will take a third of America's (record) maize harvest. That affects food markets directly: fill up an SUV's fuel tank with ethanol and you have used enough maize to feed a person for a year.
A multi-subject commentary on matters spiritual, technical, political, economic, cultural, historical, and sometimes downright trivial. "For the earth is the Lord's, and the fullness of it; the world, and those who dwell in it." (Psalm 24.1,89.11; 1 Cor 10.26)
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Let them eat cake, 2007
From The Economist:
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