Corn Commentary

Anti-Ethanol Alarmist Alert!

Remember this gem of wisdom from Lester Brown?

“Rising food prices will be the first major economic indicate that the world economy is on an environmentally unsustainable path…The deterioration of the earth’s ecosystems is slowing growth in world food production during the nineties and ushering in an era of scarcity.”

No, this statement was not made by Brown at Thursday morning’s press conference in which he predicted yet another world food crisis. It was made more than 10 years ago in Brown’s 1997 “State of the World” report. Since then, corn production in the United States increased from 9.2 billion bushels to 13.1 billion bushels a decade later.

As demonstrated by this errant prediction and many, many others dating back to the early 1970s, the doomsday statements made by Brown this morning are nothing new. Somehow, for the past 40 years, Brown has managed to make a comfortable living predicting world food crises. And for some reason, reporters continue to show up to his “press conferences.”

Fact is, while Brown is quick to whine about rising food prices, he does not note that they are rising at a rate only 0.7 percent higher than the overall rate of inflation and that energy prices are going through the roof — the real culprit in increased food costs.

The NCGA gets to the truth of the matter here.

And you can buy Brown’s State of the World report on Amazon for prices starting at $0.01.