Might Get Hungry Out

If you have noticed that you seem to be getting less for your food dollar you are right.

Rising gasoline prices have been getting all the attention, but the cost of another, more-important staple is actually rising even more: food.

In the past year, food prices have increased 3.7 percent and are on track to jump by as much as 7 percent by year's end. The current increase is more than double the 1.8 percent jump seen the year before, according to the consumer price index.

Meanwhile, gas prices rose 2.9 percent. Only the cost of health care rose more, and then just slightly.

Some of this is due to higher prices for the corn that feed cattle and chickens because so much corn is being demanded for ethanol production, but some of it is also due to rising fuel costs. As the article says we haven't seen the end of it either.

It really kind of ticks me off about the ethanol thing since using corn to produce fuel is one of the least efficient ways to produce energy. It actually takes more energy to produce ethanol from corn than is derived from the resultant ethanol. It takes a tremendous about of oil to produce the fertilizers that growing corn demands. Stupid, stupid, stupid.