At present, Environmental Protection Agency rules require that that Americans convert food that could feed five hundred million people into fuel. But this is not enough. The rules require that it be increased five fold over the next fifteen years.
A bunch of senators have asked that the rule be set aside. Hey guys. You are senators. You passed the law. Repeal it.
Paul Collier explains the famine.
In the modern era, famines are usually caused by war or socialism. This time around, it is a bit different. Collier lists four causes - one is Chinese prosperity, two are environmentalism - the ban on genetically modified food, and the American biofuel program, and one is social engineering – state intervention to preserve small (and thus ineffectual) farms as a voting block.
As I remarked earlier, the twentieth century was a time of socialist famines. Let us hope the twenty first century is not a time of greenie famines.