27th
Can we please get an actual economist on Tumblr? So that we can get something more than opinions on this science?
If anyone can put me in touch with Thomas Sowell, I will fly out to Stanford to set him up on Tumblr.
May I suggest the blogs at Reason and Mises.org? They do not use our trendy platform of choice, but they provide killer daily content.
My take: There is an injustice here, but it exists in precisely the wrong place that these goobers think. Government corn subsidies have fueled (har har) the increase in corn production, creating a false demand for corn and diverting resources away from food production. This also results in the malnutrition of the aforementioned “families all over my city”, who guzzle corn syrup in almost everything they consume.
I’m no economist, but don’t blame the farmers or even the big corporations for only doing what they have to do to stay in business. The blame lies solely with governments who allow lobbyists to dictate market behavior, and ultimately the ignorant voters who provide ripe conditions for this corruption.
Still, biofuels do not “take food away” from anyone. As more food goes to biofuel, demand for food grows, along with incentives for enterprising farmers to step in and produce cheaper food to meet the growing demand.
The misguided environmentalists who pushed for biofuels are ironically now the ones whining about the poor starving children, as if they expected their (victimhood-driven) crusade to be costless. The best intentions, guided by compassion, have once again proven to cause more harm than good.
Siderant: Don’t give me that garbage about anyone in America starving. I grew up in a rural town where half the people live below the poverty line. Somehow, everyone was on foodstamps, but were able to afford nice trucks and satellite cable packages. Yeah, the kids were malnourished but it’s a matter of priorities and parenting, NO ONE in this country HAS to starve. Yet.