Spare the Corn

With corn increasingly scarce and corn price soaring, the government should suspend ethanol mandates. If the ethanol mandate persists, then non-corn, non-food items should be substituted in the formulation. Switchgrass would be a plausible alternative. Turning food into fuel for vehicles is only defensible when that food is so plentiful that it remains easily affordable. As the corn price reflects, that is clearly no longer the case. "Spare the corn" will never enjoy the ring of "save the whale" but is never more important than now.