I forget, but what method of energy will yield water as a bi-product? Hydrogen? or something? Anyway, I forget.

Well, burning wood or gasoline will produce a good bit a water vapor. The answer you are looking for though is Hydrogen. The entirety of is emissions would be pure H20. That's not to say producing the hydrogen won't have an impact.

 imagine if that were in US$. Even billionaires would be poor

Reminds me of something I heard about the German depression in the 1920s:

People would burn money for heat because it was cheaper than using it to buy wood.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation

The sams club thing is rationing. Thats what was specifically mentioned in the news. Its a 4 bag limit, but this more affects restaurants and the like that are using it. Those who use large quantities of it.

I feel really lucky that I only see some increased prices instead of having to starve. The USA really does not have things too tough.

Remember that ZWD 50,000,000 note? Apparently it was worth about US$1.20 last time Wikipedia checked.

@ DSoverPSP
I apologize. I get you were right about the rationing at Sam's club. And with the exchange rate, the American billionaire you mentioned would have millions of billions Zimbabwean dollars given FInal-Fan's conversion rates.

@Final-Fan
Its sad, but somewhat funny when they show pictures of Zimbabwean markets where people are carrying these huge wads of cash and talking about transactions in the hundred of millions of dollars and then you realise that its just the hardship they have to go through just to survive.

Their inflation is so volatile, that most employers adjust their wages on a daily basis, and some employers just pay their employees in commodities (food and gas).

It's not actually the swich to bio fuel, but also the fact that in many places (China, India, etc.) the eating habits are moving towards more meat when the standard of living is getting better. This means that more crops are consumed by livestock than before. There's a good coverage on the issue in a recent article in the economist:

www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11049284

And to all those who think that it's business as usual and that it doesn't affect them in any way: please wake up. The proces will continue to climb for at least some time before the production is revitalized in some countries that have neglected their own production due to the abundance of recent years.

There are a number of reasons behind this. One is prolonged drought in Africa, meaning Africans in some areas have to try (with their limited funds) to buy grain elsewhere. Another is floods in China, but this is worse as the Chinese government can, will and is spending ridiculous amounts of money trying to end their grain shortage and in doing so worsening our grain shortage.

The post before me is right in pointing out the importance of feeding livestock that in turn feed China and India's growing penchant for meat, but wrong in implying that bio-fuels are not compounding the problem. In a globalized economy like Earth's, we all pay similar prices for grain (barring increased transport costs in some countries) meaning that the higher prices go, the worse it is for everybody, but most of all those that can least afford to pay: poor countries.

Often people try to argue that because third world countries are normally agricultural nations, they benefit from higher grain prices. Unfortunately this is not the case, as most studies indicate the increased prices rural farmers in poor nations must pay for their food and for the original grain they grow into more grain outweighs the benefits from higher grain prices at sale.

The effect of the bio fuel is there, but the significance of it is less than what is often proposed. It's easy to point out since it's a recent and evident contribution to the current situation, whereas the more gradual increase of demand for feeding livestock and the increase in population and thus the overall consumption itself are not so obvious.

Some idea of the impact of the increase in meat consumption in China alone: the yearly consumption has increased by 50 billion kg per year during the last 7 years. The increase alone corresponds the yearly meat consumption of the whole EU region. To produce one kg of meat (pork given as an example), you need an average of 4.3 kg of feeding. So the total increase in demand of soy/wheat and other plants used as animal feeding from China alone corresponds to around 215 billion kg.

The estimated total production of food plants in the world in the year 2008 is 2,164 billion kg, so the increase of demand from China alone corresponds around 10 % percent of the total crops this year. And as I said, this is just China's increase. It will keep on growing and other regions will also see more demand for meat based products.

www.fao.org/docrep/010/ai465e/ai465e01.htm