ethanol anyone who's been following this blog knows that i think putting corn in your gas tank is a fucking stupid idea. i haven't checked in a while but the old stats were: fill one tank of gas -or- feed 30 people. i expect it to be about the same now. we divert 40% of our corn crop to ethanol. in the paraphrased words of another, you don't need a phd in economics to understand that's going to create upward pressure on food prices. corn is the major ingredient in animal feed, soda(!), and cereals. prices of other grains also go up because we're planting less wheat to grow more corn. here in rich rich america we don't really care. why? because the cost of the wheat is a tiny fraction of the cost of bread. doubling tripling it doesn't noticeably affect what you pay in the super market. but it sure does in the rest of the world. armies run on their stomachs. you're only king as long as you can feed your people. we're seeing it in the middle east. our action of creating an artificial demand for ethanol is making people hungry. one can argue overthrowing tyrants and replacing them with democracies is a good thing. and i don't disagree. however, if these new democracies can't feed their people, they won't last. and the world will be right back where it was. our best play is see if democracy takes root throughout the area. then flood the market with cheap food so they love their new government. and they're happy to sell us their oil for really cheap. but that does mean we have to summon the political power, will and otherwise, to oppose big corn.  ¶ 8:00 AM