Yeah, old idea of supply and demand.
Just demand comes from more and more people wanting to eat :-)
Unfortunately, Earth seems to be limited.

Yes Ethanol. I'm never gonna buy an ethanol powered vehicle and neither will most people. That's a lot of good farmland being wasted on a product that will ultimately go nowhere.

As for fat.....if you die of a heart attack at 50 because of obesity....that saves social security and medicare payments down the line. Everybody complains about the cost of obesity, but it's the cost of end of life care where all the big bucks go...medical treatment and care when you're 60-70+. So....eat up! :P.

>But what is really driving prices is ethanol production.

Agree here.
Someone must be fucked hard for this.
I think that main idea now is that in really big upcoming crysis everyone forget about such small little nonsense.

>Monsato who lock farmers into agreements.

See Food Inc. topic about corporations and food in USA :-)

That is very true and I agree. Any amount of exercise is by far the best thing for anybody. However, with things like HFCS, you have to work off the fat directly, not the glucose or glycogen in the blood, so it's much harder to control by exercise alone. You have to control the source as well.

Moderation, not eating like a horse, is key. However HFCS does not stimulate the insulin response so your brain never gets the signals to stop eating. This is why people have a hard time controlling HFCS intake, as well as HFCS being in everything these days. It allows companies to sell more drinks and foods because people don't feel as full as they would if they ate healthy food. So not eating like a horse needs to include eating good foods too or else people don't feel like they've eaten at all.

I studied medical before moving to engineering in school. I also found myself becoming more overweight and became determined to become healthy so I studied as much as I could. I cut out HFCS and most processed foods as well as sodas. I lost 50lbs just by doing this and my blood sugars dropped to normal and so did my cholesterol. All without the need for drugs. I exercise a few times a week and now I feel better than I did when I was younger.

It seems like we need topic named like "Got a lens? Now go a health! Complete FAQ." :-)

The "anti-fat in food" movement has destroyed the flavor of many processed foods, so to get people to eat those foods, they have to add all sorts of things, like HFCS, to get flavor back into foods. Fat not only carries flavor, but consumption of fat tells the brain when to stop eating. When coupled with a lack of exercise (here in the U.S., many people will drive their car rather than walk a two blocks), it's a recipe for weight gain. HFCS by itself isn't dangerous; it's made with fructose (fruit sugar) and glucose, two simple sugars, but it's way overused, doesn't metabolize the same as sucrose (table sugar), and is easily overconsumed.

As for the price of corn, the original chart is misleading because it doesn't go back far enough. Looking at longer term historical prices and adjusting for inflation, corn prices today are still lower than the mid-1990's. Also the effects of ethanol production on corn price are somewhat overstated here in the thread. A much bigger reason for the price jump would be greater demand (particularly from China) and poor harvests outside the U.S.

The information is easily available. Here's just one chart:



From here:
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2011/05/corn-yields-have-increased-6x-since.html

Or try the charts on page 9 or 11 of the powerpoint here:
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/45583378/Commodity-Prices

Here's the information on China demand and poor harvests:
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/corn-prices-near-record-plunge-corn-stocks-china-use-surge-us-tightest-corn-supply-levels-15

And of course, the price spike in energy these last few years makes corn more expensive to harvest and transport, also causing a price spike.

@MrAnthony

Thanks for info.

>Not for certain commodities, as noted for the weather-related reasons above.

I agree.
All I wanted to say is that now commodities rise is similar among wide variety of them.
So, you can't just compare corn to old corn prices.
Price comparison must be complex.
It could be interesting to overlay real apartments prices on your corn chart, for example :-)

We not out of the woods yet. Great Recession Part II is unfolding.