Ethanol

The United States is the world's top producer of corn-based ethanol, and the Bush administration sees it as a key way to reduce dependence on foreign oil and curb fossil fuel emissions. Lester Brown, founder of the Earth Policy Institute (EPI) said "the evidence irrefutably demonstrates that this policy is not delivering on either goal." "In fact, it is causing environmental harm and contributing to a growing global food crisis," Brown wrote in a scathing editorial in the Washington Post. EPI says the United States burned 25% of its corn supply as fuel last year, leading to just a 1% reduction in the country's oil consumption.

Some scientists warn that biofuels actually increase greenhouse gas emissions, as farmers convert forest and grassland to new cropland to replace or add to grain diverted to biofuels.

Scores of American farmers eyeing swelling corn prices have abandoned wheat to grow corn, leading to the lowest US wheat ending stocks in 60 years, according to the US Department of Agriculture, and causing a ripple effect of rising commodity prices.