Told you lean times were coming

FT.com / In depth - Shoppers warned bigger bills on way:

"Shoppers warned bigger bills on way By Javier Blas
Published: February 24 2008 22:02 Last updated: February 24 2008 22:02
When William Lapp, of US-based consultancy Advanced Economic Solutions, took the podium at the annual US Department of Agriculture conference, the sentiment was already bullish for agricultural commodities boosted by demand from the biofuels industry and emerging countries.
He added a twist – that rising agricultural raw material prices would translate this year into sharply higher food inflation."

Blah, blah, blah---where the hell have you been for the last 6 months or so??
All you have ever had to do was watch milk prices go up at remarkable rates...33% maybe more....in just this last quarter alone.

As soon as they signed the Ethanol act those prices jumped---not because there was any real need for it now but rather because there might be one in the future.

Suddenly they were rationing the corn for tortillas in Mexico we were told so that the corn can be sold to American oil companies/refineries to make E85.

But in reality---anything that can ferment {make its own yeast} can be used to make ethanol. This means dandelions can be used, nearly any grain, hell they could even use just the cobs from the corn if they wanted to! [of course the cobs are used to make feed for farm animals too]. hell I bet they could even make it from landfills--if they tried.

Corn just ferments faster than anything else.

I was watching a show on the history channel this weekend and they were talking about how the technology to run on ethanol was actually the first way that they designed motors in cars to run, but Ford didn't like it and that is why we use gasoline today...because Ford didn't want to share any of the credit.

Now look where we are.

Of course imagine what it would have been like during the Dust Bowl days, or even during the wars with rationing...granted things were cut down on as it were, but when you factor in the dual uses of the produce between eating it, feeding it, and running the nation on it.....
Yikes!
At least with gas it has one use and one use only! Well okay...if your my daughter's scout leader it can also be used to start the campfire...so perhaps two uses.