For a little perspective, take a look at this:
http://www.farmdoc.uiuc.edu/marketin...ml/012604.html
Note that this was written in 2004- and the writer worried about the effect of ethanol on corn prices, though people now seem to think this concern is brand new or somehow sudden. It isn't. I direct your attention to this very important sentence:
Quote:
|
Second, the demand for corn for ethanol production has increased and is now institutionalized by federal and state subsidies.
|
I'm not meaning to imply that the price hasn't changed at all lately. I'm asking the question- what affects that price? Is it really because people shouldn't use corn for anything but food, and having it diverted for other purposes, including ethanol, is an inherently bad thing that well-intentioned idiots are doing but has the result of starving people? No. The root of the problem is really the subsidies- if it weren't for that institutionalized pressure, people would be putting their energy and deffort into better bio-energy sources than corn, but the subsidies are skewing it.
Anyway, food for thought.