You know there are two sides to every coin.
You must also know that newspapers "spin" stories to their likeing.
In reply to the Bloomberg Article which contrdicts itself at every turn:

"The price of young cattle sold to feedlots gained 8.7 percent in the past year...Average whole milk rose 26 percent ."

Probably true, but no-one explained issues like the price of electricity and gasoline and diesel going up... unrelated to ethanol. Maybe more people are enjoying beef these days? Every time I visit Wendy's or McDonalds the places are packed with people.

"Increased corn planting has caused some fertilizer costs to double.
Diammonium phosphate, a nutrient used on corn fields, reached $792.50 a ton on Feb. 15."

In the same article:

"Corn planting will fall 3.8 percent this year to 90 million acres as farmers sow 12 percent more land with soybeans and 6 percent more with wheat."

So farmers are still rotating crops. And corn planting, by looking at this article, must be more or less at a steady rate these days.

"Ethanol's contribution to inflation is limited, USDA economist Ephraim Leibtag said in an interview. A 50 percent jump in corn prices in 2007 from the 20-year average only added 1.6 cents to the cost of an 18-ounce box of Kellogg Co. Corn Flakes cereal, Leibtag said. The cost is less than 2 percent per box, JPMorgan Chase & Co. estimates."

So the price of corn doubles, but the price of food goes up 2%.
Sounds like a workable solution to me. And I buy more pounds of fuel per week than food. Do you? When the price of food goes up, and the price of fuel goes down, that puts more money in my pocket. And probably most American's pockets.

"Ethanol's boom helps restrain government spending on farm subsidies, said House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, a Minnesota Democrat. The USDA expects taxpayers to spend $941 million on the two main subsidy programs tied to price this year, down from $9.1 billion in 2006."

WoW! All I can say is WoW! If true, that is a 90% reduction in government ( taxpayer ) money going to farmers. Is that not more money in your pocket?

SO what's the REAL reason food prices are going up?
Bloomberg tells us the following:

"Oil prices tripled since the end of 2003...

-John