clipped from: article.nationalreview.com   

The Post article asserts that corn prices have “been climbing for months on the back of booming government-subsidized ethanol programs.”

Researchers Robert Zubrin and Gal Luft point out that the total U.S. corn crop has increased 45 percent since 2002. The amount of corn available for food and feed has increased 34 percent —- after the part used for ethanol has been taken out.

But haven’t those farmers cut back on other crops

Apparently not. As Zubrin and Luft also note, U.S. soy plantings this year are expected to be up 18 percent, wheat plantings 6 percent, and overall, U.S farm exports are up 23 percent.

American farmers are rational businessmen. When the prices crops command rise, they produce more — both by increasing acreage under cultivation (only about 30 percent of U.S. farmland is currently cultivated), and by cultivating more intensively — producing more bushels per acre.

The Post article also blames higher prices on global warming

But there is no solid evidence to suggest that