Increased ethanol production > major disaster here in the US. What about the rest of the world? Who cares?

Well, I've written about the horrible side effects of increased ethanol production (tortilla crisis)- maybe before we all jump on the bandwagon and invest in corn>fuel technologies, maybe the idea of making food cost more so we can continue living our energy-glutton lifestyles should make us think twice. But so far, it's just been impoverished people in a country we as a nation treat badly anyway. But now- eggs. Chicken. Bacon. Sody-pop.

Food will become more expensive here. Maybe that jolt will be enough for people to start thinking not only how to continue our current lifestyles but how to maybe actually change our daily lives so that we're not the nastiest pigs in the sty.

"The rising food costs fueled by ethanol demand are also affecting U.S. consumers. All things that use corn are going to have higher prices and higher cost. The impact of this is being felt first in animal feed, particularly poultry and pork. Poultry feed is about two-thirds corn; as a result, the cost to produce poultry--both meat and eggs--has already risen about 15 percent due to corn prices, says Tyner. Also expect corn syrup--used in soft drinks--to get more expensive, he says.

The situation will only get worse, says David Pimentel, a professor in the department of entomology at Cornell University. "We have over a hundred different ethanol plants under construction now, so the situation is going to get desperate," he says. Adding to the worries about corn-related food prices is President Bush's ambitious goal, announced in his last State of the Union address, that the United States will produce 35 billion gallons of ethanol by 2017.

Still, some suggest that the overheated ethanol market could soon cool down. "Politicians will see that, first of all, it is not helping our oil independence," says Pimentel. "It is increasing the price of food for people in the U.S., it is costing an enormous sum of money for everyone, and it is contributing to environmental problems. But I can imagine it is going to take another year or more before politicians realize they have a major disaster on their hands."
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