Food Crisis

Surfing the net today, I learn that in 2007 there were food riots in Austria, Hungary, Mexico, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Yemen, Mauritania, Senegal and Uzbekistan. Not all of these countries are poor and backward. What will 2008 bring? Riots in the U.S. and other prosperous countries?

The price of wheat has nearly tripled. There are a number of factors involved, among them the rush to ethanol and other biofuels. While a world crisis develops, there are those who profit handsomely from a policy that feeds gas tanks instead of stomachs. The Brazilian government is actually encouraging the destruction of the rain forest so as to grow crops for ethanol. It's madness. Mid-western farmers are delighted and neither Obama nor Clinton will say a word against ethanol and risk political extinction. There is an old saying that "things are in the saddle and riding mankind". Strike out "things" and insert "madness". In all of this, of course, there are powerful corporate interests. These nabobs are quite comfortable with all this, thank you very much, but how comfortable will they be if the malaise develops into serious revolution? How comfortable will we all be? Check this