I haven't seen a 75 percent increase in my food bill. Have you? But I did read over on http://www.iceagenow.com that our strategic food reserves are now empty. We may have cleaned them out to mask the problem.

Why would biofuels decrease food supply? I live in Kansas on the western edge of the corn belt, and around here the farmers are encouraged to be able sell non-eatable corn (of lower grades than acceptable for human consumption) as part of why the corn to ethanol plants are a good thing...

The local advertising is that they now have an outlet for selling long term stored corn that has deteriorated from human consumable, or livestock consumable, grade condition, and is only suitable for conversion to biofuels or raw corn syrup.

The biodesiel fuel is produced from oil squeezed out of soy beans and then the bulk of the bean solids, are still used as a food product, for humans or livestock as additives with milo for better nutrition.

Most of the human food quality corn is cut, cleaned in the field and shipped to the food processing plants, in clean trucks straight from the fields as it is cut. (for an extra 10% to 12% price per bushel). There is very little loss of food quality crop because of the process... Most of the farmers that are switching other crop ground to corn production, are using past milo (livestock feed use only) fields for the increase in soy beans and lower quality corn acreages.

I think the problem is instead of growing human quality corn they are growing corn for the express purpose of creating fuel. I assume it is easier to grow. Pesticides aren't as important. So it reduces the cost of growing.

From talking to the local farmers with whom I work, (at their second jobs for outside income), and observing my neighbors, chatting with the old boys waiting in line to dump grain trucks, at the coop.

Treatment of the crop is no different than any other, just the ground on which it is grown is of poorer quality, ( more clay, less humus) to where with out fertilizer there is NO yield, but instead of growing milo for around $6.15 a hundred weight...

"Over the last 18 years, Neill said he has seen milo prices as low as $2.40 per hundredweight and as high as $10 for the same amount of grain ..."

They grow corn or soybeans, and hope to have a third market option if the quality is low...

Searching for volume numbers delivered to market of each of the different qualities, over the past several years should present a better national picture...This is just my geographically limited knowledge, and resultant opinion.

The price of crops around here....its actually profitable to be a farmer. A few years ago...only 5 years ago, alfalfa was going for $40/ton. Now I hear there is a dairy farm up in Idaho that pays $200/ton. For years wheat prices were about $4 a bushel....it almost got to $20.

What I see happening is that people are planting more feed corn (in my area) & soy (doesn't grow to well here) instead of wheat, alfalfa & "eatable" corn.

Now I am not saying that my overall food bill has gone up 75%, but I have noticed that some things are way expensive compared to 5 years ago. Milk is easily double. (note the alfalfa price) Bread is also more expensive...easily 50% more. The whole biofuel thing has cost much more than it ever could save....it drives up food prices, creates shortages & your car gets less MPG.

I'd like to see more farmers supplementing their income by installing wind turbines in their fields. I could see that being a huge industry in places like the Dakotas where it is wide open, little grows, and they get a lot of wind.

Only question would be is how efficient is transporting electricity over great distances?

Maybe instead of setting up oil refineries and pipelines they can set up electrolysis plants that are powered by wind energy and instead of having a natural gas pipeline have a hydrogen gas pipeline.

interesting idea indy.