Friday, July 06, 2007

Now this is going too far

Forget increases in the price of food. Now it's hitting us where we live. Farmers are switching from growing barley to corn to meet the ethanol demand, driving up the price of beer.


The price of barley has escalated drastically, breweries and industry analysts said, in part because of a tighter supply caused by more farmers growing corn.

The advent of biofuels - such as E85, which is made of 85 percent corn ethanol - has helped push the price of corn futures up 49 percent since December 2005.

"More corn acres were planted this year than at any other time since 1944. Those acres had to come from somewhere," said Nancy Krull, director of marketing for the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, a commodity exchange.

Forget dependence on foreign oil. What about dependence on foreign beer?

Maybe that's why more folks are also growing dope.

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