Ethanol evils

The price of wheat is being driven up not just by the devaluation of the dollar, but by "increased demand" for ethanol. Ethanol-oriented corn production is crowding out food production.

The demand for ethanol has increased only because massive government subsidies have forced it into the market. Ethanol-producing farmers receive large subsidies that wheat-growing does not get from the State. The result is a flight into corn, reducing supplies and increasing prices for other essentials, e.g. hops and wheat.

This government action also sets our civilization up with a direct conflict between food production and energy use. Both will increasingly depend on and compete for the same resource, which happens to be threatened by regular epidemics. What will we eat, and how will we move cars or fuel homes, when corn crops massively fail across the world?

Corn for food has become much more expensive as well, and in Mexico the price of tortillas has skyrocketed because in the North American market, corn is now being grown for (subsidy rich) ethanol and not for food.