A P.S. on global hunger

Consider this a postscript to my July 9th blog.

In the last three years, global food prices have risen more than 80%. Wheat is now at its highest price in almost 30 years. The price of corn has doubled in two years. Rice has risen 147% in just a year. And, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, food prices will continue to rise for at least the next ten years.

Of course part of this overwhelming disaster is due to drought and flooding. Biofuels, most especially corn, are diminishing the food supply. (About 20 percent of US-grown corn is used to make ethanol.) But the foremost cause is the growing middle class of China, India and other developing countries. They want to eat more meat. But it takes about 10 pounds of grain to produce a pound of pork and 20 pounds of grain to produce a pound of beef.

Maybe it is time to paraphrase "going to hell in a hand basket." We may already be going there in a grocery basket.