Sunday, January 21, 2007
Food for Fuel
Here's something most of us probably never thought about...
In the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Rick Barrett reports:
"Across the Midwest, farmers are selling more corn to ethanol plants and are getting some of their highest prices in a decade.
In 2008, U.S. ethanol production will consume 139 million metric tons of corn, roughly half the nation's corn crop, the report notes. If that estimate is even close to being correct, the resulting strain on supplies of the ubiquitous crop could have dire consequences.
'What we are beginning to see is the unfolding of an epic competition between 800 million people who own automobiles and want to maintain their mobility, and the 2 billion poorest people in the world, many of whom are spending more than half of their income on food already,' Brown said at a news conference."
