Food shortage unnoticed - From The Desert Sun News & Time Warner Cable TV Channel 111

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Food shortage unnoticedMorris Beschloss • Special to The Desert Sun • March 5, 2008http://www.mydesert.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080305/COLUMNS03/803040325/1003/businessAlthough most global attention has been riveted on the continuing falling dollar and new records set by gold and oil, little notice has been taken of the looming food disaster just around the corner.The greatest economic mistake made by the current administration has been turning the world's most bountiful food basket into a failed attempt to alleviate the energy crisis.Although the most critical staff of life to the world's Asiatic billions is rice, which has risen 30 percent this year, the media has taken little notice of what could be the worst famine the world has faced in a century.Perhaps the coming food disaster, which has seen most staples - bread, milk, cereals, feedstock - rise 50 percent or more, is not as catchy as industrial commodities, but its repercussions will be a lot worse.When untold millions are on the edge of starvation, the already shaky global peace will give way to a collapse of law and order in many parts of the globe.It gives me little solace to report that the biofuels genie is now out of the bottle and starting to spread its wrath to the world's four corners.Morris R. Beschloss writes a regular Thursday and Sunday column for The Desert Sun. His "Global Economics" blog on mydesert.com is updated as news happens. He can be heard on KPSI Radio 920 AM every Friday 8-9 a.m., KGAM Radio 1450 Saturday 9-10 a.m., seen on KESQ Channel 3, and on Time Warner Cable TV Channel 111.