subsidies

Richard Lobb, Coalition for Balanced Food and Fuel Policy, is interviewed about a study that finds federal ethanol subsidies are contributing to rising food prices.

Food prices are up 40% this year, leading the UN to warn that the world may face unprecendented food shortages in 2008, due to a combination of bad weather, a rise in meat eating, and the large-scale growth of biofuels. As many parts of the world experience rationing or rioting, can we possibly subsidise maize for our cars?

This is an article on various sides of the “corn story” published in the Washington Post, with farmers telling us they can’t survive without the subsidies. I guess they’ll inherit the earth when the rest of us have no water to drink.

Panelists -- Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek International Editor; Dr. Chris Somerville, Director of the Carnegie Institution for Science, Department of Plant Biology; Former Rep. Charles W. Stenholm -- discuss the economics and technology of biofuels and other renewable energy sources, as well as clean coal. They also debate energy independence and courses of action on the matter of climate change.