There's a point here.

The latest global food pinch is actually starting to hit home a little. Take note of the following, taken from SeattlePI.com:

"Media reports are starting to trickle in about grocers limiting some food purchases, while Costco Wholesale Corp. is seeing higher-than-usual demand for staple foods such as rice and flour as consumers appear to be stocking up.

The Reuters story followed a Monday article in The New York Sun, which reported that certain food sellers, including a Costco warehouse in California, were limiting purchases of flour, rice and cooking oil.

The World Food Program says that rising food prices -- and a corresponding food shortage -- threaten 20 million of the planet's poorest children.
Food prices have risen 40 percent on average since mid-2007, and have led to riots in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.
At a summit in London on Tuesday, the executive director of the World Food Program said that a "silent tsunami" of hunger is sweeping the world's most desperate nations.

The World Bank estimates food prices have risen by 83 percent in three years."

And from the Telegraph:

"Egyptian families are having to get up at dawn each day to queue up for bread rations, as the country struggles to cope with grain shortages that threaten a major political crisis."

Infowars.com:

"The UN secretary general has warned that millions of people are at risk of starvation as global food stocks have fallen to their lowest levels for decades.
In a letter to a US newspaper Ban Ki Moon warned that shortages are forcing prices to rise which may have devastating consequences for the world’s most vulnerable communities

The shortage of food has now assumed a global dimension; some 73 million people in 78 countries depend on the United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP).

Rice, corn, dairy and poultry products are the worst affected commodities,around the globe."

The Earth Policy Institute in reference to U.S. production of Ethanol:

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) projects that distilleries will require only 60 million tons of corn from the 2008 harvest. But here at the Earth Policy Institute (EPI), we estimate that distilleries will need 139 million tons—more than twice as much. If the EPI estimate is at all close to the mark, the emerging competition between cars and people for grain will likely drive world grain prices to levels never seen before. The key questions are: How high will grain prices rise? When will the crunch come? And what will be the worldwide effect of rising food prices?

This unprecedented diversion of the world’s leading grain crop to the production of fuel will affect food prices everywhere. As the world corn price rises, so too do those of wheat and rice, both because of consumer substitution among grains and because the crops compete for land. Both corn and wheat futures were already trading at 10-year highs in late 2006.The U.S. corn crop, accounting for 40 percent of the global harvest and supplying 70 percent of the world’s corn exports, looms large in the world food economy. Annual U.S. corn exports of some 55 million tons account for nearly one fourth of world grain exports. The corn harvest of Iowa alone, which edges out Illinois as the leading producer, exceeds the entire grain harvest of Canada. Substantially reducing this export flow would send shock waves throughout the world economy."

Take that all in, and the think about the fact that we had a huge celebratory sale at the first E85 ethanol station here, letting people fill their cars, trucks, and SUVs for 85 cents a gallon. Now tell me you don't get my point.

Sunday Bloody Sunday redux

I seriously never thought I could condone a cover of this particular song. The original is too good, too meaningful, and too perfect to be tampered with, right? I was wrong. Saul Williams has done the impossible, I think, in relating this to the current place and time. His latest release- linked to from the video above- is a seriously good effort, and a bargain at $5 for the digital version (the only way it's available, by the way). Check it out, and if you like what you see, please support the artist.