On 2007-07-20 21:16:26 -0700, Stella Starr said:

C J Campbell wrote:

There have already been riots in Mexico because of the corn shortage.
But you will have about as much luck fighting "Big Corn" as you did
"Big Oil."


It may be worth noting that corn growers are getting NO federal crop
subsidies, since the price is currently high. Not as high as it's been
in adjusted dollars in the past, but high enough that the capitalist
system responded in admirable fashion, inspiring growers to announce
plans to plant a record number of acres in corn.

Guess Mexican farmers would be free to do that too, wouldn't they?

There are not enough acres in the whole USA to plant enough corn to
meet the President's ethanol goals. If all our corn goes to ethanol,
then we have to import food from somewhere else. Two things happen: we
become dependent on a foreign power for our food, and the impoverished
in other countries suddenly find us outbidding them for their own
produce.

The way we beat the oil cartels during the fuel crisis of the early
'70s was we simply pointed out that we can live for some time without
oil, but those countries were almost wholly dependent on us for food.
Guess who could go longer -- us without oil or them without food? It
was no contest. The end result was simple inflation and oil actually
dropped in relative value to other commodities.

But if we start burning all of our corn we will no longer have that leverage.
--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor