Food Prices (1980)

Today's Golden Oldie is a Dry Bones cartoon done 30 years ago in 1980.

Israel is a small country surrounded by markets that boycott our products and that won't sell us theirs. We are largely tied to the seasonal harvests in our own country as to what's in our vegetable shops and on sale in our open air markets. Thirty years ago we had a strawberry crisis.

Which was the reason for today's Golden Oldie.

The Car

Ethanol was supposed to be the solution. Now it's part of the problem?!

According to the Associated Press:

With Food Costs Rising, Ethanol Benefits Now Questioned
WASHINGTON (AP) - "Just months ago, ethanol was the Holy Grail to energy independence and a "green fuel" that would help nudge the country away from climate-changing fossil energy.

Democrats and Republicans cheered its benefits as Congress directed a fivefold increase in ethanol use as a motor fuel. President Bush called it key to his strategy to cut gasoline use by 20 percent by 2010.

But now with skyrocketing food costs - even U.S. senators are complaining about seeing shocking prices at the supermarket - and hunger spreading across the globe, some lawmakers are wondering if they made a mistake.

"Our enthusiasm for corn ethanol deserves a second look. That's all I'm saying, a second look," said Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., at a House hearing Tuesday where the impact of ethanol on soaring food costs was given a wide airing.

In a dramatic reversal, ethanol has shifted from being an object of widespread, bipartisan praise to one of derision, even among some of its past supporters." -more