Inconvenient politicians cause food riots

Here is an inconvenient truth about those inconvenient politicians who are the cause of the rising food prices and food riots all over the world.

Al Gore’s inconvenient food riots

Al Gore took it. It’s an “Inconvenient Truth,” says Al, “that the gasoline that runs our cars is ruining the planet, causing global warming.”

Responding to this threat, about 30 percent of the U.S. corn crop last season was diverted to ethanol production, mandated and subsidized by the government. The goal was to use less gasoline, reduce CO2 emissions and lessen our dependence on foreign oil.

After all the cost and effort, gasoline use was reduced only about 1 percent. However, corn prices shot up, causing a ripple effect for all food products containing corn from flakes to tortillas. Then wheat prices went up, too, because less wheat had been planted to make room for the mandated and subsidized corn.

In spite of these consequences, the all-but-tied Democratic presidential contenders, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton advocate more biofuel production. Both would expand the 2005 mandate to 36 billion gallons by 2022, rising to 60 billion gallons by 2030. With the Iowa (corn growing state) primary looming last January, Obama advocated expanding the federal mandate for corn-based ethanol, and Clinton switched her 2005 opposition to mandates to support.

The Republican nominee, John McCain, lost the Iowa primary, famously opposed to biofuel mandates and biofuel subsidies and tariffs. He would abolish the $.51 per gallon subsidy the federal government pays to fuel blenders for using ethanol and the $.54 per gallon tariff imposed on imported ethanol, such as Brazilian sugar cane based ethanol.

Meanwhile the higher price of gasoline costs the average American family an additional $1,500/year.

Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama – when will you realize the damage your ideas have done to every American consumer?

The net effect on consumers is pain at the pump and at the supermarket. And the pain doesn’t get any easier knowing that it’s largely self-inflicted.