If success in government is defined by making it more expensive to live, chalk up ethanol mandates as another "success."

The Times of London points out that government rules requiring the use of ethanol in gasoline is increasing food prices. "The USDA predicts that food prices will rise by up to 3.5 per cent this year as farmers rein in output in response to feedstock costs."

Why? Production of beef, pork, and chicken normally rises 2 percent per year. But with ethanol mandates in place, a bushel of corn now costs over $4 a bushel. Farmers and ranchers are making adjustments, including raising fewer animals using less efficient food.

As the report in the Times points out, this is not just an American phenomenon. The European Union is joining the mandate madness, and here in the U.S., state governments are getting into the act as well.

Some politicians like to blather on about a "war on the poor." But at least one front of the "war" is being waged by government, dishing out still more corporate welfare that benefits large agricultural interests, in in a misguided pursuit of environmental and national security goals.