Orphans of the Corn: Stop the Massacre

Bill Smith, ARRA Editor: Friend, fellow blogger and Grizzly Groundswell contributor, J.G. at Hoopy Frood Dude posted the following story that in the end summarizes the failures of government. The truth of the article is painful but forces one to see that seldom does government consider the future consequences of their actions:

Just a few days ago I gave my rant about biofuels, and included an article by Arnaud de Borchgrave. As it looks, neither Arnaud's or my article were far off track. Actually, they were pretty dead on. That Biofuels were of particular fault in the economic and humanitarian crisis being felt around the world.

As it looks, the failed mandate by Congress to eventually replace fossil fuels with biofuels such as ethanol, are causing problems the world over. It's hit such a point that the World Bank has called on the G7 to increase emergency food assistance as 33 countries around the world are facing civil unrest due to high food prices and shortages.

And the way it's coming out, the proponents of biofuels are to blame. Period. Elizabeth Stuart, a spokesman for the Oxfam anti-poverty group has said, "’Half of the increase in the demand for major food crops was due to the move to biofuels,’ she said. ‘These have dubious environment benefits, and by driving up prices, are crippling the lives of the poor. ... The [World] Bank, with other international institutions and the G7, must come up with a joint plan to tackle this crisis.’”

Even the U.N.'s Right To Food independent expert Jean Ziegler has called for the five year moratorium on biofuel production to come to a halt as the growing practice of converting food crops into biofuels is "a crime against humanity.'' I normally don't put much stock in the U.N. But when it involves humanitarian problems, I at least lend ear to it. Then make my decisions.

Not only is it the subsidization of corn (and other food staples such as wheat, sugarcane, rice, etc.,) to be used for biofuels that's hurting the poverty stricken areas. But the increased fuel and energy costs to simply deliver it has added to the burden. Lawrence Kudlow (a former Reagan economic advisor) has said, “…The continued decline in the value of the dollar … has permitted the global commodities boom (energy and corn) to leak into higher U.S. inflation. Bulging commodity costs have depressed the profits of non-financial domestic businesses...”

All this goes to show a few things; First is, there's NOTHING that the government can't screw up. Second is, these are all things that government could have prevented by not getting involved, from the ethanol mandate to increasing the money supply. Thirdly, less (smaller) government allows for less interference. And lastly, it proves yet again the government which governs least, governs the best.

Thank you J.G. Although there is nothing new under the sun, government actions and / or inactions still continue to boggle our minds with its failures. Instead of focusing on providing more corn and other food products to fight world hunger, liberals would instead have us focus on converting these crops to operate our vehicles. Instead of using these crops to sustain life, they would have consume them materially on ourselves. Why? Because liberal do not value human life. Their definition of nature includes land, water, plants and all animals except for humans. To liberals, humans are the problem. Starving a few hundred millions is not as important to them as keeping the caribou from ever seeing an oil pipeline and is not as important as building a few more refineries in the Unites States. I could continue but then it would get even more depressing and you get my drift.

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Tags: America, biofuels, crisis, government, government failures, Humanitarian, Starvation To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!