Environmentalism Kills

......in many ways, need to keep an eye on this......

America's ethanol boom, which threatens the world with mass hunger, cannot be understood without first understanding the country's terribly destructive corn monoculture. Ethanol mandates and subsidies essentially constitute a huge transfer of wealth from corn consumers to corn growers, including agribusiness giants like Archer Daniels Midland and a handful of privileged farmers who apparently feel entitled to control and exploit thousands of acres of cropland in ways that are harmful to the environment and the health and well being of the overwhelming majority of Americans.

In 2006, more than a third of the US corn crop went to ethanol, nearly a 50 percent rise in one year alone. The higher price that results from soaring demand is hurting the already beleaguered dairy industry in New England and New York State, affecting affecting milk consumers in the United States.

Biofueld demand for corn is also affecting the price of tortillas in Mexico—making it harder for poor families to survive--and threatening to bring about sharply higher food prices internationally. As the world corn price rises, prices of wheat and rice follow. As a result, mass hunger could result among those populations that are already at the edge of starvation.

Ethanol from corn is inefficient to boot. In contrast with sugarcane-based ethanol, which is made in Brazil, corn-based ethanol may actually use more energy than it produces while making the air dirtier.

The foreign policy implications of US government mandated ethanol madness are plainly disturbing. In the name of energy independence and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the US taxpayer is funding an industry that is contributing to food inflation and is likely to make life even more miserable than it presently is for the planet's poorest and most vulnerable people.

Check out this trailer........