[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 23:16:43 04/27/08
US Senator Charles 'Chuck' Grassley (Iowa) is one of the biggest boosters of government subsidies that pay farmers to grow corn for ethanol to fuel cars and trucks. Food-for-fuel policies are among the main causes of the recent price rises in food prices that is causing hunger and misery among the world's poorest people. This video shows the two sides of Chuck Grassley. First, speaking at a Baptist meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, he says that "turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to world hunger exposes the selfish side of human nature." Grassley then reveals that his own 'selfish side' is alive and kicking by vigorously defending US crops-for-fuel subsidies during a telephone news conference with agriculture reporters. Grassley then gives a boneheaded defence of food-for-fuel subsidies, denying any connection between diverting millions of acres of farm land to produce ethanol and the rising price of corn and other staple commodities. What's more recent studies have shown that US ethanol policy is actually making climate change worse by increasing carbon emissions. Grassley is a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee that is currently writing a new US farm bill as well as being the ranking minority member of the Senate Finance Committee that continues to grant big tax breaks for ethanol while maintains a high import tariff against ethanol from outside the US. As well as being a Senator, he is also a corn farmer from Iowa, the biggest producer of corn-based-ethanol in the US. So that may explain it. Good old pork barrel politics.
