Part III: Escalating Grain Prices, Corn Burning, and News Blackout.
On January 12, a New York Times story quoted the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) regarding alarming commodity food price increases with no end in sight. The Times made no effort to identify the cause of the problem. We will explain what the Times did not, and you will find our research on our website.
According to FAO, which does nothing but keep statistics, its Food Price Index reached the highest recorded level ever in December 2010. The Times story states: "The United Nations estimates that nearly one billion people worldwide do not get enough food, (spokesman) Mr. Kripke noted… That’s almost certain to increase as prices rise, especially if they rise in an aggressive manner, which they are”. Kripke continued: In "December its food price index surpassed its previous peak …corn and soy prices were also moving up quickly, with corn hitting a 29-month high."
FAO economist Mario Zappacosta is quoted, "About 10,000 to 12,000 tons of cereals are needed for every 100,000 people." The organization warns that the very poor, such as those in Southern Sudan, are being priced out of the cereal market.
As prices rise, there will be many Sudan\’s. The revolution in Tunisia is believed by some to have been triggered by food riots, which have also occurred in Greece. This author expects meat and milk to rise at least as much as grains because meat and milk is made from cereal grains and soybeans. According to FAO statistics, cereal grains, like corn, were up 39% in one year, and oils and fats were up 58%.
In parts I and II of this series we have examined giant subsidies paid to agribusiness to produce ethanol, consuming an enormous 13 billion bushels or more of corn cereal grain each year to produce the fuel alcohol that we consumers are forced to burn in our autos. We offered expert academic references to show that the use of ethanol is counterproductive in every way, including environmentally.
Why don\’t we hear about the cause of this devastating problem from our elected "representative" who looks after us in Congress, or from our President. If rats were consuming 13 billion bushels of grain a year and they could be stopped with a stroke of the pen, it would happen. If a new blight, weed, or insect was robbing the poor of that much corn, we would have action in Congress before morning. But so powerful are the lobbies that support the ethanol industry, that only a few voices–our own and those of a few brave professors at agribusiness colleges—have been heard in opposition.
Why the silence? Why does the US government exclude food and fuel from its Consumer Price Index?
Why doesn\’t the United Nations point out that a major source of the problem is burning corn?
Why doesn\’t even one Member of Congress point out what the subsidy to ethanol is really costing?
Why don\’t Bill and Melissa Gates, Warren Buffet, or George Soros start a project to stop food burning?
The answer to all these questions is the same: Ethanol is part of an official policy of the US government that has spread internationally. Most of those in government, business, and philanthropy have friends and colleagues who would not like it if they told the truth about the corn-to-ethanol racket, so ethanol is ignored!
The job of exposure is up to those of us who have no friends or investments in the ethanol scam. This is not easy. My first 18 years were spent between the rows of corn on a South Dakota farm that today prospers far beyond those days by selling corn for ethanol. Perhaps 75% of the friends and neighbors of my youth are on the receiving end of the Ethanol rip-off, enjoying the ride, justifying their passive participation by their years of hard work before there was an ethanol plant in town willing to share the subsidies.
Who, other than our cowardly, self-serving Congress who pass the laws, is at the root of the problem? The Ethanol monopoly could not exist without massive subsides to agribusiness giants, who in turn pay giant lobbies to control your Congressmen. The present system assures shortages of every food while grain is destroyed by 190 subsidized ethanol plants seen along highways everywhere corn is raised. The monopoly\’s capacity to burn food is nearly unlimited so long as Congress pays for the subsidies. No other argument is relevant, no excuses should be accepted.
At the deeply hidden core of the ethanol problem is the Federal Reserve System that stands ready to monetize all the deficits created by our Congress. We will talk about "The FED\’S" role in burning corn for global famine next time in a new series on "The Mega Bankers"
Part I: https://whtt.org/newwhtt/main.php?nid=3660&ncateid=1
Part II: https://whtt.org/newwhtt/main.php?nid=3659&ncateid=1
Original Research paper 2007:
https://whtt.org/printerfriendly.php?news=2&id=1774
