EDITORIAL - What the government and the Bush administration doesn't want to tell you is that food prices are increasing because of government. Government demanded a five-fold increase in the production of corn-based ethanol fuel in order to appease environmentalists. Now the Bush administration wants to blame rising food prices on high energy costs. Could he possibly be talking about the high ethanol prices that are caused by all of those government subsidies for the ethanol industry? Just wondering.

Just take a look at the facts. Consumer food prices generally rise by about 2.5% a year. In 2007, these prices rose by 4%. That is the largest increase in 17 years. Stand by and look at the bright side ... they're only going to get higher as our governments react to this idiotic global warming alarmism and turn more of our arable land to the production of ethanol and other bio fuels.

Here are some facts for you. Ethanol makers will consume one quarter of the 13 billion US corn crop this year. Chickens and cows (Eggs, beef, milk) don't appreciate this. Right now in the United States, there are about 35 million acres enrolled in the US Conservation Reserve Program. This is where the government pays landowners to sit on their butts and do nothing with their "environmentally sensitive land." Even if just 5 million of those acres came out of the program, and you planted corn on every inch of that land, you might affect the price by maybe 20 cents.

I read this statistic on the air yesterday, but it is worth putting it down in writing for you to really see what is going on here. It takes 232kg of corn to fill a 50 liter tank of gas with ethanol. That corn used to fill one car tank with ethanol is enough to feed one child for an entire year. A year! Maybe we can genetically alter babies to drink ethanol.

Here are some more great facts on ethanol that these global warmers won't tell you. You thought oil companies got large subsidies?? Think again.

Is there a good side to increases in food prices? Well, you might think that if food were more expensive people would start eating less. That might cut back on the obesity epidemic. Sorry, doesn't work that way. When the food prices go up people will just turn to more starchy foods .. and the broadening of America will continue.