Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

The rising global price of rice is causing problems in the developing world. Rice is a dietary staple in the developing world and as its price rises, it forces households to spend a higher percentage of their budget on food.

And the problem is global. We are seeing the effects of higher food prices in the United States and the developed world as well, only to a much smaller extent and to much smaller consequence.

But what exactly is causing food prices to rise so sharply?

Global warming. 

Not global warming as it relates to the average temperature of the earth rising a half a degree over the last century, but global warming as it relates to the high profile media and political frenzy.

Since the turn of the century, global warming has become trendy reaching a higher profile than it has ever enjoyed in the past (especially since the 1970's when its archnemesis global cooling was the fad). As a result, there has been a shift in American pop and political culture that now views global warming as something that can proactively be fought. Consequently, millions of dollars have been poured into researching alternative fuels, particularly ethanol.

But there is a problem with ethanol (and other crop based fuel) production: It raises the worldwide price of food. 

Ethanol is a corn based alcohol. Corn, like rice, is a dietary staple and is also a major feed for animals all around the world. It also grows very readily in the United States. 

Farmers, like any other American, follow the money. As global warming and ethanol production have become the fad, so too has growing corn. As a result, farmers have rotated out other crops normally grown for export in favor of corn. This, in turn, lowers the overall supply of food and causes prices to go up.

The world economy is interconnected, and sometimes it takes years to feel the ripples. The global warming fad started with Al Gore's inconvenient truth, and the inconvenient truth is that we may not yet have seen the worst of its effects on the global food supply and global food prices.