By Denise Ross

Is it just me, or is there a major disconnect in this new line that increased ethanol production is driving up food prices worldwide? My BS detector goes off like a 6 am alarm clock every time I hear this. Am I missing something?

Yes, corn prices are at a lofty $4 per bushel, and farmers are smiling. But guess what? We don’t eat all that corn we grow. No one eats that corn. It’s inedible. And we’ve grown enough of it in my Gen X memory that huge piles of it sit on the ground because the grain elevators are full and there’s nowhere to ship it.

Here, the guys from the documentary King Corn try to eat the corn they grew on 1 single acre in Iowa. They are disappointed and disgusted by what they taste and spit out the Yellow Dent. (You can see King Corn tonight on PBS. Hoghouse Blog recommends.)

I saw the film last week at the Elks Theatre. It breaks down where that single acre of corn goes, and as goes that single acre so goes all those huge piles. So if we’re not eating all that corn, what’s happening to it?

While we’re not eating it, we are consuming much of it. Much of Yellow Dent - which is the vast majority of corn grown by farmers - gets processed into high fructose corn syrup, which on its own also is pretty unappetizing. (The film says that about 30 percent of Yellow Dent is exported or turned into ethanol.)

Meanwhile, the rest is processed into that viscousy clear sludge or fed to cattle. Of the high fructose corn syrup, usable only as an ingredient in other foods, 70 % winds up sweetening soft drinks. SEVENTY UNHOLY PERCENT. So why aren’t we blaming Coke and Pepsi for the high price of food? Heaven knows the $1.32 charged for a 20-oz bottle leaves them a nice profit margin.

But we’re not blaming soda pop. Just last week the World Bank president blamed biofuels, made primarily from inedible corn, for the high price of rice and wheat. This is the disconnect to which I refer.

“Biofuels is no doubt a significant contributor,” (Robert) Zoellick says. “It is clearly the case that programs in Europe and the United States that have increased biofuel production have contributed to the added demand for food.”

And he held up a bag of rice at a press conference to make his point.

“In Bangladesh a two-kilogram bag of rice … now consumes about half of the daily income of a poor family,” he said. “The price of a loaf of bread … has more than doubled. Poor people in Yemen are now spending more than a quarter of their incomes just on bread.”

OK, I’m sure that’s all true. And while my bag of Healthy Choice 7-grain lists high fructose corn syrup as an ingredient (not the highlight of my day, seeing that) I’ll go out on a limb and say that ingredient is not in bread sold in Yemen. For their sake, I hope not.

But wait, there’s more. With the rising middle classes in India and China living more and more like Americans (welcome to the Hoghouse, eh?), that means they drive cars and burn oil like us, AND it means they eat more like us, too. So says Mr. World Bank, even.

“You have some of those countries moving to a different diet. So more meats require more grains. … As the Indian commerce minister said to me, going from one meal a day to two meals a day for 300 million people increases demand a lot. “

And in the very next sentence, he again blames biofuels. But lets get back to the meat part. True, cows eat corn. But it’s really bad for them. About as bad as it is for us. They’re supposed to eat grass, which turns out leaner meat as well. So are the Indian and Chinese livestock (hey, wait a minute! They’re not eating cows in India. That I’m sure of.) feeding on corn or grass? Or are the US and Argentina shipping them corn-fed cows? If so, that brings us back to the high cost of oil. 

So with backsides and waistlines spreading out over most of Asia, is there more to this story? Why yes, there is.

Climate, including droughts in Australia and Europe that have limited crop production, has also had an impact on food prices, Zoellick says.

It is American agriculture policy (Farm Bill) that has brought us so much Yellow Dent, the rise of which so nicely correlates with the obesity epidemic. The one smart thing we’ve done with that crop is turn it into fuel.

Sure, American farmers could grow more rice and wheat and ship that overseas to feed the world - which was George McGovern’s plan when he advocated for changing our farm policy back in the 1960s. McGovern’s vision is still valid. His plan didn’t quite work out, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still turn it to our foreign policy advantage. (Too bad straight high fructose corn syrup isn’t what the starving masses want to eat.)

I would love to see data showing how many more acres of rice and wheat would be needed to fend off high food prices around the globe. I’d bet Congress would move quickly to make that happen. But nobody’s pushing that. They’re just beating the biofuels drum.

But with $4 gas and the likes of Saudi Arabia, Russia and Venezuela controling the world’s oil supply - and with the shelves and motorized scooters at your neighborhood Wal-Mart bursting with high fructose corn syrup, how on Earth can anyone advocate we do anything with Yellow Dent corn other than turn it into fuel?

America has a chance to prop up national security like no military conflict could, by becoming fuel independent and by, at the same time, sending rice and wheat to poor countries. We have some work to do, but the opportunity is at our feet.

If the biofuels boogey-man spooks us and we run, high fructose corn syrup will be the least of our worries.

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