Grassley: Let Them Eat Rice!

I ripped Democrat Sherrod Brown this morning on free trade, so in the interests of bipartisanship, this post will rip Sen. Charles Grassley (R, Ethanol). From the Des Moines Register :

Washington, D.C. - Maybe the Chinese should eat rice instead of corn-fed beef and pork, Sen. Charles Grassley said.

The Iowa Republican said Tuesday that if it's right to blame rising food prices on the use of corn for ethanol, then it's OK to also question the growth of meat consumption in China, which increases the use of grain for livestock feed.

"If part of our problem is that the Chinese are going to eat meat and you've got to have corn and soybeans to feed the Chinese their meat, then why isn't it just as legitimate for the Chinese to go back and eat rice as it is for us to change our policy on corn to ethanol?" Grassley asked in a conference call with reporters.

Is it any wonder we're not well liked around the world? What a tool....

Grassley said he wasn't recommending that China and other countries reduce their meat consumption. "I'm saying it's legitimate for me to raise that as a question, just as it's legitimate for them to raise the question of us of corn to ethanol," he said.

Yeah, because you know it's just as important for Charles Grassley to get re-elected to the Senate as it is for the Chinese to upgrade their diet. Ethanol is bad for the environment, distorts the commodity markets and takes food from hungry people. But Grassley doesn't care about any of that; he just wants to bring home the bacon.