Meme Watch: Ethanol and Food Prices

I generally never open e-mail forwards. Chain letters, jokes, funny pictures -- they're usually not worth the electrons they're printed on.

Ysterday I received a forward from jackrabit1 on "Signs there might be an 'Ethanol Boom.'" At first I thought it might be a tip on a breaking news story: new ethanol plant in Lake County? Hyperion abandons petroleum and decides to use Elk Point cornfields for raising corn? No such luck -- it was just jokes:

• **Buying cornflakes at the grocery store now requires finding a clerk with the key to open the cabinet.
• **Sorry, kids - no soccer this summer. Playing fields will now be planted to corn to pay the city's debt.
• **Think that's funny, golfers? You're next.

And so on. I got ready to hit Delete, but then realized this e-mail meant something. You've read previous posts here raising concerns about the impact of growing ethanol production on pheasant habitat, food prices, and water quality. Evidently, seeing ethanol in a context broader than quick profit for farmers and refiners is becoming more common. At the point where a concept can become the subject of a commonly circulated joke e-mail, that concept has apparently changed from arcane academic topic to subject of more general public awareness... and that's probably a good thing.