Redstate

By trevino Posted in Energy — Comments (6) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

This was originally posted at Grassley Watch, where we're trying to get Iowa's Republican Senator to .... act like a Republican.

Americans -- and especially Iowans -- know full well that there's a food crisis underway. Every mom who shops for groceries knows it, as does every restauranteur, and every worker who puts in some overtime to afford the next meal knows it.

How bad is it? According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, food prices now are rising faster than they have in over a decade, with milk up 3.2%; oranges up 34.1%; ground beef up 2.7%; chicken up 5.5%; and coffee up 4.9 percent. The overall rate of inflation for food prices is now 5.3%, and it is predicted to go well beyond that before the year is out.

All Americans are hurt by this, and all are worried. An April 7th Gallup poll reveals that soaring food prices are of more concern to Americans than both health care and taxes. Sadly, the hardest hit are the poor: an April 24th Gallup poll shows that 64% of low-income Americans are experiencing significant hardship due to rising food prices.

How does this relate to Senator Chuck Grassley?

Glad you asked. The soaring food prices in the United States are due to two factors: soaring oil prices, which are not the Senator's fault; and the massive diversion of America's corn crop to what's known as the renewable fuels mandate, which emphatically is the Senator's fault. The existing renewable fuels mandate, meant to promote the old boondoggle of ethanol to the benefit of a small farming coterie -- and the detriment of everyone who, well, eats food -- now sweeps over a quarter of American corn production out of the food supply. If you're Iowan, you know that corn is not just a food -- it is very close to being the food, undergirding nearly every manufactured food product in some manner, from livestock to sweeteners and beyond. A free market would see corn doing what corn does: less underpowering of automobiles, and more forming the staple of America's bounty.

But free markets, economic efficiency, and fairness to families are not motivating Senator Grassley here -- and a Reuters story today drives home just how destructively parochial he is on the topic. In brief, some Senators see the suffering of American families, and wish to do something about it. Senator Grassley sees a threat to venerable pork, and wishes the grocery-shopping families of America to pay the bill.

Who wins? Chuck Grassley, of course. It's easy to see the exclusively Iowan interests he defends here as somehow the villains: but the reality is that Iowans pay the price of his policy folly as much as their fellow Americans. Everyone must eat -- and no one must drive corn-powered cars. A pity, then, that Chuck Grassley drives national policy in decisive favor of the latter.

Meanwhile, there's a poor mother out there now, wondering how dinner's going to get on the table....