Reader comments: Ethanol boosting food costs

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So | 7:41 a.m. May 2, 2008
So it takes a gallon and a half of oil to produce a gallon of ethanol, therefore, producing Ethanol increases the need for oil--raising the price of that and increases the need for corn, etc--raising the price for that. Seems like a lose-lose situation to me.
Ethanol is dumb | 9:08 a.m. May 2, 2008
So 7:41 is right. Ethanol is truly a lose/lose/lose situation - higher fuel prices, higher food prices, and more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This is the stupidest idea to come out of our government in a long time - and that's really saying something.

So why did they do it? There's exactly one reason:

Iowa has the first presidential caucus.
KornyKollins | 9:33 a.m. May 2, 2008
As corn prices go higher, they will move above the break-even cost of many end users and those end users will stop buying corn, until prices retreat. So why not just stop buying corn now and speed up the retreat.
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