Last week I wrote about food riots in Haiti…as an example of how George Bush ruins everything he touches.

However, the food shortages in Haiti are being repeated around the world and yesterday via Atrios, it became apparent that we may be closer to them then we would like to be.

Already feeling the pinch from soaring wheat and flour prices, U.S. bakers are now beginning to experience some supply shortages.

Rye flour stocks have been depleted in the United States, and by June or July there will be no more U.S. rye flour to purchase, said Lee Sanders, senior vice president for government relations and public affairs at the American Bakers Association.

"Those that are purchasing it now are having to purchase it from Germany and the Netherlands, and that’s very concerning," Sanders said.

She attributed the shortage to high demand for rye flour, which is used to make rye bread, and less acreage devoted to rye grain than in the past.

Grain prices have been soaring worldwide while stocks have been dwindling, causing riots in some poor countries.

Well that’s certainly disturbing news.

Can it get worse?

Why yes:

For bakers, rye grain is not the only supply stock that is declining. In the past the market has typically had a three-month surplus of wheat stocks to serve as a cushion against supply interruptions, but now the surplus is down to less than 27 days worth of wheat, Sanders said.

And here’s an interesting hypothesis as to why:

The American Bakers Association has been lobbying Congress to open up "non-environmentally sensitive" land in the Conservation Reserve Program for production to help increase supply. The group is also advocating elimination of the ethanol import tariff and temporarily waiving ethanol production limits.

"We need to make sure there is good balance between traditional agriculture and ethanol policies," Sanders said.

I know this comes from an interest group, but it does have the benefit of being accurate and it isn’t a particularly popular topic here in Iowa, but this is further evidence that King Corn is slowly killing us.

Yes corn, one of the heartiest commercial crops to grow. The most flexible of crops, so lacking in nutrition it might as well be called the Hostess Twinkies (made up substantially of corn) of the vegetable world. And now, thanks to the "ethanol" craze it is rapidly taking up the farmland that used to be used for planting healthier crops like grains, beans, and soybeans. It is insanity — and once again Bush is right in the middle of promoting it anyway.

*Maybe not