The new Kay Barnes??

Barnes panders to farmers
By Mike Hendricks, KC Star
    I didn't realize the farm vote was still that important, but apparently it is in Missouri's 6th Congressional District.    
   Otherwise Democrat Kay Barnes wouldn't be pandering to farmers in a news release today, absolving them of any responsibility for high food prices.
    What hooey.
    You don't have to take the word of experts to see how your grocery bill is affected by the conversion of feed crops like corn into ethanol.
    Anyone who understands the law of supply and demand can figure that one out, as the price of corn figures into the price of many of the things we buy at the supermarket.
    Even Barnes understands this, I would hope.
    Yet in a press release that arrived in my inbox this morning, Barnes shifts the blame to the oil companies and others for the results of this nation's stupid ethanol policy.
    Says Barnes:
     "I shop for groceries every week and see almost everything going up inaddition to corn. The price of eggs, apples, and even bananas have gonethrough the roof, and we don't use these foods to make biofuel. Farmersreceive very little of the eventual cost of food we buy at the market (seearticle below). The real culprits are the big oil companies. The national media needs to do their research and leave our farmers alone."
    First of all, her mention of corn is simplistic. We don't buy field corn (the kind used to make ethanol) in the grocery store. But the rising cost of corn does figure into the price of meat, as cattle eat corn at most feedlots. And corn is the basis for the sweeteners in pop and many other products. (It's called high fructose corn syrup -- get it, corn syrup) But Barnes ignores that.
    Instead, she lays all the blame on the oil companies. Oh, they deserve plenty of the blame for high fuel prices, which manifest themselves in the price of everything going up -- even bananas and apples, due to shipping and other fuel-related costs.
   But Big Oil is not entirely to blame for high food prices. There's also the growing demand for fuel and other goods in China and other growing economies.
    But the farm lobby also shares blame for its decades-long push to have government subsidize the production of ethanol, a biofuel that is less efficient than gasoline and is in some respects a worse pollutant. Even so, farm state legislatures requires its use in order to help boost crop prices for farmers.
   Still, I can see why Barnes would take this position.
    When you're running for congress against a Republican incumbent who portrays himself as the son of the sod and paints you as a city liberal (don't get me started on Sam Graves), it only makes sense that you would pander to rural interests.
   And while you're at it, attack the big, bad media, as Barnes did in the final paragraph of today's statement:
   "If the editorial writers from newspapers like the NewYork Times would come down from their ivory towers long enough to talk toreal family farmers, they would know that they are working hard to make aliving. Now, in addition to coping with high fuel prices, our farmers unfairly have to take the brunt of criticism for what the big oil companieshave done to food prices."
   Well, that's enough from me. I think I hear my phone ringing in the Ivory Tower. Probably Steve Glorioso on the line.