Ethanol Ruins Everything
Economics 101. Resources are scarce. If you put all of your resources into production of one good, you are prevented from making others. For example, arable land in the United States is a scarce resource. Every year we harvest about 370 million acres of land. Historically, 20% of that land has gone towards corn production. However, over the last five years, more and more of that arable land has been diverted to grow corn. In 2003, 21% of arable land was used to harvest corn; this number rose again to 22% in 2004, and is projected to be 25% in 2008. A 5% increase in acres of land used to harvest corn, translates to almost a 20 million acre increase. This means that corn production for 2008 will be the highest it’s been since the 1940’s when America began planting more corn due to demand from countries ravaged by WWII. The difference between the 1940’s and modern times is there is no world war raging to disturb the demand for corn.
So what is the cause?
Though they are usual topic of discussion when analyzing the current war in Iraq, the mercenaries hired by the United States federal government once more find themselves hurtled into the limelight. Of the three groups contracted by our government—Triple Canopy, DynCorp, and Blackwater—Blackwater has easily the biggest contracts, especially for the Iraq region. This private military contractor (PMC) makes its revenue from governmental no-bid contracts, trains forces in the United States, and then operates as the government’s private force overseas. 
Few people welcomed the onset of the United States’ occupation of Iraq in 2003 as wholeheartedly as the Iraqi Kurds. As American forces advanced on Baghdad, the almost six million Kurds living in Northern Iraq danced in the streets to celebrate the end of Hussein’s reign, which included mass destruction of Kurdish agriculture, political oppression, relocation, and military campaigns that verged on genocide. Now, in a media-saturated country like the United States, where politicians work to capitalize on the constant stream of dark and messy news flowing out of Iraq, positive reports on American, British, South Korean and other coalition forces efforts seem to be actively swallowed up. Despite this, Iraqi Kurdistan has become a consistent source of good news from the Middle East.
