"People are starving in Africa so that American politicians can court votes in farm states."

Biofuels have been a "terrible mistake," says Paul Krugman.

[E]ven on optimistic estimates, producing a gallon of ethanol from corn uses most of the energy the gallon contains. But it turns out that even seemingly “good” biofuel policies, like Brazil’s use of ethanol from sugar cane, accelerate the pace of climate change by promoting deforestation.

And meanwhile, land used to grow biofuel feedstock is land not available to grow food, so subsidies to biofuels are a major factor in the food crisis....

Oh, and in case you’re wondering: All the remaining presidential contenders are terrible on this issue.