The USDA forecast is for a lower corn harvest this year than last. Last year there was a record corn harvest at the expense of planting fewer soybean acres. By taking soybean acreage out of production and putting corn into production one did not solve the problem of higher food prices, and increased malnutrition of the poor. The nation is nowhere near satisfying Federal ethanol mandates and more corn is needed.

Not only does the United States have aspirations to make more ethanol in the future, Canada has a mandatory ethanol law that may require much more corn consumption for ethanol production by 2010. There were EU directives resulting in both ethanol and biodiesel production. There are U.S. state laws requiring biofuels production including mandatory biodiesel production. Soybeans were consumed in order to make biodiesel. There are additional biofuels programs in India, China, Brazil, to name a few. One of Stuart's charts shows the escalation in ethanol capacity bieng built. This year may not be like last year. Already there have been losses in ethanol production facilities at a time when the nation needs corporate profits and the jobs created by such.

A United Nations report blamed biofuels production for most of the rise in food prices since 2000. When George Bush claimed cellulosic ethanol to be the way to energy independence, the cost of cellulosic ethanol was as high as no company or individual could produce cellosic ethanol without losing money. Cellulosic ethanol is a very expensive and inefficient energy loop that has not been proven economically viable in any nation on earth and if carryed out may lead to record high fuel prices and voter dissatisfaction over government waste and inefficiency.