CORNY STORY IN THE PRESS: FOOD PRICES SET TO ROCKET

The New York Times and other US papers printed a story about the coming food price rise. As it is expressed on the AP newswire, which many churnalists chose to cut and paste, the problem is due to the ethanol trade. The article implies that to make ethanol one uses the kernels, the edible part of the corn (maize). That would not be practical, as ethanol is best produced from the abundant cellulose which is in the leaves, stalk and hobs. Our bodies do not digest this; other animals do.

The articles then go on to point out that corn is used in high fructose corn syrup and corn chips...but does not blame these manufacturers, whose products, unlike ethanol, are not essential. Ethanol is an energy product and is used in cars from Canada to Brazil; Henry Ford proposed using it in cars, using farm wastes and hemp. The powers to be promoted petroleum instead, forcing America to suck on the gaspipe. And suck, and suck and suck. So no wonder that ethanol is being put in a bad light by bad journalists. We can write a letter to the NYT and the NY Daily News but they often ignore anything they do not want to hear....

So corn prices double, and the price of a gallon may do so also. If the papers got behind solid science then we could solve the economic crisis, but that is not what they exist for.

So expect higher food prices and sluggish response to sensible energy development. But at least blame Doritos and Cap'n Crunch for the rise in the corn prices, not ethanol producers, who can use the waste parts of corn we don't use.