I think folks have the energy and food equation reversed. Industrial agriculture works by using energy for tilling, fertilizer, harvesting and processing. As the price of energy goes up, the price of food goes up much faster. Then comes the fuel->food->fuel feedback loop.

What happens is many of the petroleum exporting countries use the revenue to buy food. When the price of food goes up, so too does the cost of fuel. This is an unbounded feedback loop. We saw this in 1973 after the first oil embargo.

Bob Wilson

Operation Iraqi Oil Freedom:

Automatic, stock, project car.

My other 1500 cc car:

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