Food Prices & Biofoolishness

The price of food is on the rise all over the world .In US markets, the price of a bushel of wheat has gone over $10 for the first time. Soybeans are at a 34-year high. And corn is hitting new highs with every passing week.
According to Simon Johnson, chief economist at the IMF, there are three factors responsible for the spike in prices.
First, increased demand from emerging economies like India and China, where consumers are demanding more calories in their diet.
Second, weather. Droughts have had an impact in some parts of the world.
But third is the contentious relationship between food and fuel. Corn prices, according to the IMF, have doubled over the past two years. And in significant part, that is due to demand for the biofuel, ethanol, and the way in which ethanol policy is made in the United States.
Hopes are running high that the second generation of biofuels may one day wean us off our reliance on petroleum, but until we're burning switch grass and wood waste, the dream has a definite downside. Deforestation rates in Indonesia and Brazil have spiked as farmers clear land to plant oil palm and soybeans for biodiesel. Meanwhile, in the US, increased corn production for ethanol has raised commodity prices, increased pressure on conservation reserves and threatened to exacerbate the Gulf dead zone as a result of increased fertilizer run-off.