In my first post on the issue, my thoughts were more focused on the farming end of the issue of agriculture and the movement toward ethanol.  I want to say a few things about the consumer side of things as well.  I was not planning to wait this long between posts, but life got busy in the mean time.  What’s interesting, though, is that the issue of crop choices and crop failures and the effect on food prices has become en even hotter issue since my last post.  Now there are Congressional hearings and a much larger interest in this topic. 

I don’t want to say tons other than this is a complex issue.  I mentioned several of the upsides of this issue in my previous post.  I want to mention some of the complicating factors of the increased planting of corn over other crops (wheat, barley, etc.) and the increased diverting of corn from some markets (feed for livestock, food for humans) into the fuel market.  One is that the use of ethanol as an efficient fuel that can move the U.S. away from our dependence on foreign oil is still very much in its infancy.  Secondly, we are starting to see some major ripple effects from the choices of farmers combined with natural problems (droughts and low harvests).  Check out this video of a friend of mine, Nate, which was featured on the news out here in Seattle back in March.  Here also is a newspaper article articulating some of the same ideas on a little bit broader scale.

We are discovering just how interconnected we are economically as choices made in the area of food production are effecting people across the board.  Also, as a homebrewer and beer lover, I am seeing the effects of these choices in the price of beer.  While some may scoff at a mention of beer in this discussion, I think bringing in quality of life issues becomes important.  The price of malted barley has doubled in the past year, partly due to the planting of more corn for ethanol.  Also, the price of hops has nearly tripled due to the conversion of hops fields to grain and also one of the largest hop crop failures that Northern Europe has seen in a long time.  I bring this into the equation as a personal example of how the price of food items is hitting home.  Any trip to the grocery store recently will yield similar information. 

I am somewhat apprehensive to see how the issue of food costs plays out.  I have read some lately that the price of rice is going to really jump which will hit rice-dependent countries extremely hard.  In fact, it may not even be a factor of price but moreso that there will be no rice to be had.  I may have some more on this as time goes by.