What is as scary as oil peaking, in geological terms, are the government efforts by the United States, Canada, and Europe, and elsewhere to use corn, soybeans, beets, sugar cane, palm oil, and sweet potatoes to produce biofuels. This is already contributing to rampant food inflation around the globe and is scheduled to worsen. Large increases in farm productivity did not happen in a season, nor was a season sufficient to bring in large quantities of new acres cleared, prepared, and producing. In a season ethanol use is scheduled to rise faster than agriculture is prepared to respond.

While there were some initial reporta suggesting the best wheat harvests ever might occur this year around the world, already Pakistan might only produce two-thirds of the wheat they harvested in 2007. Analysts reported some potential dry conditions remaining in parts of Australia. This is only a microcosm of difficulties that might be faced by the end of the year. Another area reporting winter wheat problems was N. Dakota (USA). If one could see more, one might see that every year there were catastrophic crop failures and not to count the bushels before they are harvested.

United States corn harvests may be lower as fewer acres were planted in corn in the face of higher corn demand by numerous ethanol distillery contructions. Canada was also attempting to ramp up its corn ethanol production. Some hoped they might get ethanol from Brazil, yet Brazil exported a small fraction of its production, not enough to support the strict requirements of the ethanol blending requirements of the United States and Canada.