The Poor Aren't On The Iowa Caucus Agenda -- Farmer's Pocketbooks Are...

clipped from instapundit.com MORE ON WHY ETHANOL FUEL is probably a bad idea: Congress evidently believes that American energy independence depends, in part, on turning massive quantities of food into fuel. The energy bill being debated in the Senate would mandate that 36 billion gallons of ethanol be produced for transport fuel by 2020. President Bush is more or less on board since he proposed a 35 billion gallon mandate in his last State of the Union speech. on average Americans spend about 10 percent of their incomes on groceries. Doubling that would bring us back to the good old days of the 1950s when families spent about 20 percent of their incomes on food. Doubled food prices would not mean mass starvation for Americans. However, our biofuels frenzy will not only starve oil despots of cash, but it could end up literally starving millions in poor countries.

Glenn ends this one by pointing out that "the world's poor do not participate in Iowa's presidential caucuses." I sympathize as much as anyone that we need to stop funding the Saudis to wipe out western civ. Don't get me wrong.

But does it make sense to starve even more poor around the world to death as a side effect of rising corn prices? Let them eat cake apparently. Hold the tortillas.

Oh, wait. Food is a fungible commodity isn't it? So they won't be able to afford the rising wheat prices either...