Should the US have a program to use food crops for fuel given the growing world demand and rising prices?

Question

See
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119093856250042023.html?mod=most_viewed_day

I mean the the growing world demand and rising prices for food. We all know about the problems with gas.

Answer 1

Well, it depends on whether you are a consumer or a farmer. Farmers are a long-suffering group who have remained in an increasingly difficult field that has been in steady decline since the bonanza farms era of 1900.

The government decided, wisely at the time, that we did indeed need food to be produced in this country and they enacted some measures to protect farmers and keep them economically viable through the industrial and green revolutions that made individual farmers far more productive but lowered crop prices to dangerously low levels.
Of course, as a consumer, this was the time period when the price of food became so low, that we no longer ever worried about having something to eat. The "feed the hungry" groups even had to change their definition of "hunger" from nat having food, to being worried about not having food, because no sane person in the United States has been without food for a decade.

Now, however, the alternative fuels movement has began to push demand for some crops (corn in particular) higher and thus price begins to rise. For years, agribusiness fought to find other uses for corn (corn oil, corn syrup, animal feed, etc.) Now with its increasing use as a biofuel, we see a general rise in prices for all the items that corn is used in (all dairy products, anything with a sweetener, etc.)

Given that the economic outlook for farmers is so much better than it has been should we eliminate these programs?

This will not be popular, but Nope!
This is a temporary glitch as the demand for corn picked up AFTER it was planted. It is impossible to ramp up production of corn after the growing season has begun. Check the prices next year, and see how the growers respond to the market. You will probably see a glut of corn pushing the prices even lower than they were last year, because every farmer will try to jump on the biofuel bandwagon.

Have patience and let the market do its magic.

Hope this helps,
Good luck!

Answer 2

This is a very complicated question..Even though crop prices are surging, the Govt can easily get more competitive pricing just by gettin multiple bids from different farmers, and if that doesn't work, they can buy from over seas. But the problems can only begin from there...Naturally, the price of corn will skyrocket, and corn is in pretty much in everything! So the result will be higher prices for most of the food products we buy.

Answer 3

NO! even though I've heard that it's made out of the stalks and leaves and not the corn itself there is a way better alternative fuel out there that is clean burning, that does'nt pollute the air, that we all should demand and that fuel source is hydrogen. It can be made from various sources and can be made cheaply available but that won't happen because everybody, the(rich) are so heavily invested in oil that they'll just keep making excuses such as a loss of jobs, infrastructure isn't there, while that is partly true they'll make it sound way worse than it actually is to keep raking in all that money 30billion $ in a 4 month span and that's just one company and I believe there are 8 others out there as well ripping off the people with the governments blessing as most of the officials are invested in oil themselves.So it's going to have to be up to us the middle class,lower class to start demanding the change over and not just excepting the excuses they hand us as they have been.It's time to wake up people so let's start spreading the word and start demanding ans from our elected officials.Time really is of the essence.A lot of jobs will be created as we transfer from oil to hydrogen. sorry to be so long winded! Also would'nt you like to see what would happen to oil prices if we had it taken off the stock market so these greedy people could not speculate on oil prices? Bet prices would drop like a stone you all have a nice day!!!!
p.s.I forgot to mention that I call my senator
and my congressman and b%*#ch at them
only to feel as if I'm being blown off that's why it's soooo important that all of you start to b&^%ch as well that way they can't ignore us anymore!!!!!!!!

Answer 4

No. Doing so would encourage farmers to sell to the highest bidder regardless if its for food or fuel