FORBES REMOVED THE HOGWASH ABOUT ETHANOL & EGYPT, BUT MICHAEL POLLAN ISN'T LISTENING

Feb 09, 2011  |  Today's News

Oh for heaven’s sake. Just when you think that maybe, just maybe, a little bit of common sense is dripping into the “group think” of America’s talking heads, reality just whops you up’side the head. Truth and righteousness won out over the weekend when Forbes removed the story about ethanol causing Egypt’s political unrest (last Friday’s Corn Scoops covered this.) But today I stumbled across a tweet from Michael Pollan (appeared on Food Inc and author of The Ominvore’s Dilemma) that said, “High food prices and political instability: isn't it time to rethink US subsidies for ethanol? See Krugman today too http://p2.to/17z0”.

So, I rolled my eyes and clicked the link in Pollan’s tweet to see whatever hogwash story he is directing his 52,408 twitter followers to check out. And guess what? The story he links to DOES NOT BLAME ETHANOL!

Really, Mr. Pollan? You reference a news story as the “fact” behind your “fiction” that doesn’t even echo your own statement. And what’s worse is this! How many of your 52,408 followers bothered to click on that story and read it, or did they take your status as a self-proclaimed expert to mean that you only speak the gospel and therefore don’t need to follow up?

Here’s a line quoted directly from the news story you linked…”"Things were quite different in 2008... You had price spikes, it was a couple of food grains," said Chris Delgado, an agriculture specialist at the World Bank. "What is going on now is more broadbased... It's not led by grains."

Hello?? Right there they said it’s not led by grains, (read corn and ethanol). But don’t let that stop you from tweeting that twash.

So I tweeted back to Mr. Pollan.

From @agchick “? @michaelpollan Article says, "What is going on now is more broadbased... It's not led by grains." http://p2.to/17z0 Cheap shot much?”

I doubt he listens, but maybe one of my 5,694 followers will.