‘Food for fuel’ is overblown

May 11, 2008 12:00 am

— Wayne Cole’s simplistic explanation of ethanol production being solely responsible for the increase in food prices is typical of the “microwave mentality” many have in today’s complex world.
Accept Cole’s explanation if you can discount $120 per barrel oil, the fact India and China are buying commodities to feed their billions of newly-solvent middle classes and the pathetically small amounts market prices contribute to the retail prices of food. Those things require some serious thought.
Much of the food price increase is directly attributable to the price of oil, which is a function of global supply and perceived future supply. That supply is short because of increased demand and years of ignorance on the part of Americans, who don’t realize abundant affordable energy is all that stands between them and Third World status. Such ignorance is evident in that there are not oil platforms on both U.S. coasts and in the eastern half of the Gulf of Mexico and over petroleum reserves in the Rockies and the Arctic.
Ethanol is much easier to blame.
Dan Crummett
Stillwater