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I'll try to make the sentiment more certain in the common tongue. <br>
<br>
In recent memory, Dhimmi Carter used food as a weapon against the
former Soviet Union <br>
to try and persuade them to depart from the same Afghanistan that the
United States invaded later.<br>
Like Rabshekeh, he invited the Russkies to get their protein as urea
and their energy from the <br>
detritus cycle while avoiding the middleman. The USSR found a
different grain supplier.<br>
<br>
The net effect was that many small farmers in the US were taken out of
the business of farming and <br>
their land was taken over by increasingly larger players.<br>
<br>
But the strategy of starving a population under siege is time-tested
one and the besieged are severely<br>
pressured to overthrow their rulers and join hands with the adversaries
with the promise of good things to eat and drink.<br>
<br>
There can be little doubt that the US ethanol policy which
systematically wastes a significant portion (~20+%) of the<br>
energy in corn starches and concentrates naturally occurring toxicants
in the unfermented by-product, <br>
contributing to world hunger and squandering precious resources, and
strengthening the power of those benefiting in the US.<br>
<br>
As the demand for corn for the ethanol machine increases, speculative
money is drawn into the commodity<br>
markets which further drives up world food prices.<br>
<br>
Since corn is traded on the international market, any decline in the
value of the dollar will drive up<br>
already increasing food prices in the USA as well.<br>
<br>
But there is hope, since speculative hot money from the FED's Q.E. III
is expected to go<br>
south of the border into an exciting new perpetual motion enterprise.<br>
<a href="http://showcase.netins.net/web/clevad/cat.htm"><br>
http://showcase.netins.net/web/clevad/cat.htm</a><br>
<br>
On 2/19/2011 9:52 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:4D5FCB0B.8050207@illinois.edu" type="cite">
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Wayne--<br>
<br>
...precamur ut ... non loquaris nobis vulgate audiente populo qui est
super murum... because they won't understand either the language or the
sentiment.<br>
<br>
But this seems to me quite important, even as the political economy of
fossil fuels is misrepresented by both business parties in support of
US imperial crimes in the Mideast: "We must end US dependency on
Mideast oil" so misrepresents the situation that it's not even wrong.<br>
<br>
I'm not normally a fan of the Manhattan Institute, but long ago on
"News From Neptune" we coined The Incompleteness Principle, which
states, "No one can be wrong all the time!" I'm very much afraid that
Mr. Bryce is right in this case. --CGE<br>
<br>
<br>
PS-the awful Chambliss is the bff of our awful fake liberal senator
Durbin, and they're up to some serious no-good, viz. & to wit:<br>
<br>
'SLASH MOB: WARNER/CHAMBLISS/DURBIN GETTING SERIOUS - Mark Warner and
Saxby Chambliss are merging their bipartisan group of 20-or-so senators
with a gang that other senators are calling "the D-triple-C": Durbin,
Conrad, Crapo and Coburn, the four senators who voted for the deficit
panel's recommendations (and are still here). None of them think
they'll have a plan ready by the time the CR expires, but Warner says
folks'll be surprised at how much support they have. <br>
<br>
'Democracy For America has been pressing Durbin not to agree to cuts to
Social Security or other entitlements, which led to a meeting between
group members and a Durbin staffer in Illinois. Before the meeting, the
staffer pulled the organizer, Dr. Pamella Gronemeyer, aside and said,
"Don't worry, it won't affect you," referring to possible cuts to
Social Security ... "I was taken aback. I'm not talking about myself.
I'm talking about my kid and other people's kids," she said. "I don't
care if it affects me. That's not how I make my decisions. It's not
about me. It's the right thing to do. Anybody whose parents lived
through the depression knows what it can be like."'<br>
<br>
<br>
On 2/19/11 2:55 AM, E. Wayne Johnson wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:4D5F8568.1080503@pigs.ag" type="cite">
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<p>The consumption of corn starches and seed oils as automotive
fuels is thermodynamically/entropically stupid, and economically
unsound, as well as unethical. Of course it is strategically wise in
the minds of the evil hegemons who rule the US of A to starve out
others as a means of more and more power.<br>
</p>
<p><br>
The Ethanol industry is driven by politics and some of the most
unethical xomboid human shells on the planet are ramrodding it, such as
the "leadership" of the US Corn Growers Association and geniuses like
Saxby Chambliss. Like Ted Geisel's Once-ler, they have no intent for
their positive feedback loop except biggering, and Biggering, and
BIGGERING. Damn the young barbaloots in their barbaloot suits. Who
cares about crummies in the tummies? The automobiles of the world
demand ethanol and their owners have the money to buy the ethanol that
everyone, everyone, Everyone needs. This buggery of biggering is
backed by billions of bucks provided on the backs of the people, and by
that buffoon Bernanke's infinite printing press and for the benefit of
Obot's bankster buddies. They say that Ethanol is good for the
environment, building lie upon lie. Babel's bricks are mortared with
slime indeed.<br>
</p>
<p>*<br>
<img alt="" src="cid:part1.05060308.09080101@pigs.ag" height="241"
width="307"><br>
</p>
<p>*</p>
"ad viros qui sedent super murum ut comedant stercora sua et bibant
urinam suam vobiscum"<br>
<br>
<p><u>Madness of Biofuels --</u></p>
<p>Last month, Peter Brabeck, the chairman of the Swiss food giant
Nestle, declared that using food crops to make biofuels was "absolute
madness."</p>
<p>The epicenter of that madness is the U.S. corn-ethanol sector.
This year, it will consume 40 percent of all U.S. corn - that's about
15 percent of global corn production or 5 percent of all global grain -
in order to produce a volume of motor fuel with the energy equivalent
of about 0.6 percent of global oil needs.</p>
<p>Congress lavishes about $7 billion in annual subsidies, mandates
and tariff protections upon an industry that is helping push global
food prices to all-time highs and shrink grain reserves at the very
same time that global grain production is faltering and protests over
food prices are becoming common.</p>
<p>The quantity of grain to be consumed this year for ethanol
production - 4.9 billion bushels - boggles the mind. That's more than
twice as much as all the corn produced in Brazil and more than six
times as much as is grown in India. Put another way, that's more corn
than the output of the European Union, Mexico, Argentina and India
combined.</p>
<p>Despite these facts, President Obama said last month in his
State of the Union speech, "We can break our dependence on oil with
biofuels." Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House, who
is considering a run for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination,
was in Iowa recently, cravenly wooing the ethanol producers and
slamming "big city" critics of the ethanol industry. Alas, there's
little reason to expect much bravery out of Mr. Gingrich's fellow
Republicans on Capitol Hill. Current Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio
Republican, recently told reporters not to expect cuts to the ethanol
subsidies because they are "not in the discretionary spending pot."</p>
<p>While Mr. Obama prevaricates and Congress dithers, ethanol
boosters are once again claiming that their sector has negligible
effect on grain prices. However, the events of the past few weeks -
corn futures at near-record highs and social unrest related to food
prices - are nearly identical to the mayhem that occurred in 2007 and
2008. Back then, more than a dozen studies, including ones by Purdue
University, the World Bank and the Congressional Research Service,
exposed the link between increasing ethanol production and higher food
prices. Soaring food prices led to violent protests in Egypt, Cameroon,
Ivory Coast, Haiti, Mauritania, Ethiopia, Madagascar, the Philippines
and Indonesia. Worries about adequate food stocks led several countries
to ban food exports.</p>
<p>In May 2008, the Rand Corp. warned that diverting corn to the
ethanol sector was not only bad economics, but a security threat:
"Using corn for ethanol is economically inefficient and has harmed U.S.
national security. Diverting corn from food to ethanol production has
pushed up world market prices for grains and other foods, which, in
2008, resulted in riots in a number of developing countries."</p>
<p>In recent weeks, we've seen food price increases and protests
that are reminiscent of 2008. There have been food riots in Algeria and
Mozambique. Last month, about 8,000 Jordanians protested in the streets
of Amman and other cities over rising food prices. In Egypt, the
world's biggest wheat importer, wheat prices are up by 30 percent over
the past 12 months. Those higher wheat prices are being stoked by
rising corn prices, which have doubled over the past six months and are
at about $7 per bushel. "Higher corn prices always means higher wheat
prices," says Bill Lapp, president of Advanced Economic Solutions, an
Omaha-based commodity consulting firm.</p>
<p>In December, a study by two U.S. agriculture economists, Thomas
Elam and Steve Meyer, found that corn prices are being directly stoked
by demand from the ethanol sector. Mr. Elam and Mr. Meyer, who have
done consulting work for the meat industry, found that without the
ethanol mandates, the average price of corn would be lower by more than
$2 per bushel. They also conclude that "biofuels policy has caused
significant cost increases for all users of feedgrains."</p>
<p>David Orden, a senior research fellow at the International Food
Policy Research Institute in Washington, told me that surging corn
prices are "a continuation of what happened in 2008." The push for
biofuels, he said, "has clearly tightened up agricultural commodity
markets. That's good for farmers, but it is not good for poor people
around the world."</p>
<p>Many of those poor live in the United States. Some 43.6 million
Americans, about 14 percent of the population, are receiving federal
food stamps. Since October 2008, the number of Americans relying on
food stamps jumped by 41.5 percent, and enrollment in the program has
increased for 26 consecutive months. And thanks to the ethanol scam,
those many millions are being priced out of the meat aisle. Over the
past year, beef prices have risen more than 6 percent, and pork prices
are up 11 percent. Economists are expecting overall grocery prices in
the United States to rise by about 5 percent this year.</p>
<p>But the real - and likely more dangerous - food-price increases
will happen outside of this country. Last year, the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development projected that global grain prices
are likely to be as much as 40 percent higher by 2020, and a
London-based nonprofit entity, ActionAid, predicted that some 600
million more people could be left hungry by 2020 because of increased
production of biofuels.</p>
<p>Mr. Brabeck, the chairman of Nestle, the world's biggest food
company, has rightly put the spotlight on the biofuels madness. As the
head of a company with $100 billion in annual food-related revenues,
Mr. Brabeck clearly has a keen understanding of the global food
industry. And last month during the World Economic Forum in Davos,
Switzerland, he identified the stunningly obvious solution to the
ongoing insanity. "No food for fuel," he said.</p>
<p>It's time - no, it's long past time - to heed Mr. Brabeck's
advice. "No food for fuel" should be the mantra on Capitol Hill and at
the United Nations. In addition, it should be a required oath for all
of the candidates (Mr. Gingrich in particular) who are planning to
campaign in Iowa for the 2012 presidential election.</p>
<p>Stop the madness.</p>
<p><em>Robert Bryce is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
His latest book is "Power Hungry: The Myths of 'Green' Energy and the
Real Fuels of the Future" (PublicAffairs, 2010).</em></p>
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