[Wonder Warthog]

The only problem with your little fantasy is that ethanol production INCREASES the availability of food. Corn used in ethanol is surplusage over usage in food, not taken from food uses. The production of ethanol from that surplus corn only removes the carbohydrate fraction. The fat and protein portions don't just disappear when the carbohydrates are removed. The residual is high quality, high energy food.

It normally goes into feed production for meat animals, but I'm sure if the market raises prices, it will be diverted to human consumption.

[Bulwinkle]

Well, here’s an article how ethanol was driving up the cost of beer:

That food shortage article mentioned the 2008 food shortage...which also drove up beer prices:

PHOENIX – A global shortage of hops, combined with a run-up in barley prices, is sending a chill through Arizona’s craft-beer industry.

The hops shortage threatens to boost prices, cut into profits and close down brewpubs. It could change the taste and consistency of treasured local ales....

Brewers are dealing with a 10 percent to 15 percent shortfall in the worldwide supply of hops, largely caused by farmers cutting back on the crop and recent yields diminished by rain and drought. Prices have jumped as much as 10-fold..

Papazian attributed the barley prices to ethanol subsidies that have raised the price of corn, the main ingredient in the alternative fuel. As a result, farmers have switched to barley for livestock feed, which has pushed up prices.

http://tucsoncitizen.com/morgue/2008/01/21/74610-hops-shortage-threatens-brewpubs/

[Fraxinus]

I think in the end production of Ethanol reduces the food supply, but no where near what some claim. What is left out of the discussion is that there has been no famine due to lack of food production in the last century. All famines have been due to dis- or non-function of the distribution systems. Generally due to either war or politics (see Ukraine).

To my knowledge the last Famine in North America due to crop failure was in 1816, in Europe it was 1845-46. The development of the Railroad enabled the movement of food from where it was in abundance to where it was scarce. Reading between the lines of the OP, the major problems appear to be the rising cost of Food due to it having to be imported, not that it is unavailable.

Farmers in North America and Europe have had to contend with chronic overproduction since the early 1900’s related to the mechanization of farms. To a large extent the use of oil crops and ethanol only return to the use of a significant portion of the crop for motive power. I remember reading in a book once that in the Roman Empire 90% of all farm production was used on the farm, farms may have gotten more productive since then but the real increase in productivity was not until farmers started replacing draft animals with tractors.