Letters to the Editor
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LOTS of CORN
I live in St. Louis, Missouri, and frequently ride a bicycle through farm country east of St. Louis in central Illinois. In years past there's been a pretty even division between corn and bean fields, but this year there is easily twice as much corn as beans, maybe more. This is not scientific - I just counted fields as I rode by.
The weather has been warm and wet and if the current weather pattern continues, there will be high yields from much of Illinois. I'm not sure how this will affect the price of corn, but no one is talking about the price of beans. There may be many fewer soybeans - an important food source for both food animals and people.
So Americans will pay more through subsidies or directly to fuel their cars AND pay more for food, while others starve. Burning the yields of our farms so we can continue to drive large cars is just plain stupid. Okay, so I'm smug because I ride a bike, but this is not the way to "energy independence".