[Mrs. Don-o]

The United States does not have to feed the people of the earth. They are feeding themselves. China and India are digging themselves out of poverty, and many countries which once were listed as hungry now report that their #1 food-related problem is obesity.

Of course there are hungry people on earth --- even food-surpus countries have hungry people --- but these are distribution problems, not production problems. You might want to refer to these resources:

The Mathusian problem answered:
http://reason.com/sullum/010500.shtml
http://www.reason.com/rb/rb112002.shtml
http://www.reason.com/rb/rb022603.shtml

On how poverty takes a lot of work on the part of politicians to sustain:
http://www.reason.com/rb/rb091802.shtml

One of the big challenges ahead is the shift in the way people are using grains. If a lot of corn gets shunted off the ethanol production, that will have a big impact on food prices for people who don't have much leeway.

I personally would turn thumbs-down on ethanol unless and until its production can prove rationally profitable in response to the free market (and not governemnt subsidies and pressures).

And India, China and Japan, whose people traditionally ate lots of rice, vegetables, lentils, soy and fish, are eating dramatically more beef every year, which is hugely costly because of the unfavorable plant protein/animal protein conversion ratio.

But they're doing that precisely because they're now more prosperous than they've ever been in their history, largely because they're emerging from the stranglehold of socialism. Population, food, and freedom are perfectly capable of expanding simultaneously.

Something Al Gore has never been able to wrap his mind around.

[Sun]

“One of the big challenges ahead is the shift in the way people are using grains. If a lot of corn gets shunted off the ethanol production, that will have a big impact on food prices for people who don’t have much leeway.”

Mark Levin, on one of his radio shows awhile back, was going over how so much “fossil” fuel is used to make ethanol, that what we gain from ethanol energy is minimal.

Plus, our food goes up in price, like corn and grains, and in turn, our dairy products increase in price, because cows are fed corn and grains.

Leave it to the government to act without first figuring out the consequences.