In response to to my post on food prices and ethanol, reader PaulD writes:
Fortunately, the pressure on food prices will be short lived. The energy bill has mandated higher fuel efficiency standards that no doubt will curb demand...
Maybe true on the demand side, but we are forgetting the requirements on alternative fuel production--a fivefold increase by 2020--15 billions gallons of which must be corn-based ethanol. Corn ethanol production in 2006 was about 5 billion gallons. No short-lived food price pressure in sight--not that there's anything wrong with that.
*That's French for 'all politicians are idiots', or something like that.
