Food Prices Make Biggest Jump Since 1974

It seems like there's a crisis a day:

Wholesale prices jumped last month by the most in nearly two years due to higher energy costs and the steepest rise in food prices in 36 years. Excluding those volatile categories, inflation was tame.

The Labor Department said Wednesday that the Producer Price Index rose a seasonally adjusted 1.6 percent in February -- double the 0.8 percent rise in the previous month. Outside of food and energy costs, the core index ticked up 0.2 percent, less than January's 0.5 percent rise.

Food prices soared 3.9 percent last month, the biggest gain since November 1974. Most of that increase was due to a sharp rise in vegetable costs, which increased nearly 50 percent. That was the most in almost a year. Meat and dairy products also rose.

Energy prices rose 3.3 percent last month, led by a 3.7 percent increase in gasoline costs.

Let's not forget another big factor in the rise of food prices - the government's silly requirement that we turn millions of acres of corn into ethanol instead of food products. That has driven up the price of corn products which hits especially hard in parts of the world where corn is a staple of the everyday diet of poor people.

Ethanol is a very inefficient fuel, and if it wasn't for the influence of corn state legislators who are pushing the government to require it in our fuel, nobody would be trying to put it in our gas tanks. By promoting corn as a fuel instead of a food we guarantee higher prices and food shortages that may not be that long in the future.