The perception of a problem is connected to the solution of it. Maybe the problem lies within the definition of the problem, or in what is left out of the problem formulation.

The UN disagrees... as do basically every expert on the subject who isn't paid by an ethanol subsidy.

Food prices go up because of the massive amounts of corn the US uses in it's biofuels program.  Obama specifically wants to triple this.

When corn prices rise it effects the prices of everything else as well as there is less food on the market in general.

I don't think you've read his plan throughly.  He wants to increase corn based ethanol times 3.  This will kill people.  It already is killing people.

He wants even more money for development of other biofuels.  However that isn't the particular problem.

Obama is in the pocket of Corn based ethanol and always has.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/us/politics/23ethanol.html?_r=2&ref=us&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Meh, the world is overpopulated as it is...

I kid, I kid.

George Bush & hence the republicans are deeply disliked in Europe. The Uk's ex-prime minsiter (Tony Blair) was widely ridiculed as being Bush's lapdog. When Bush did a European farewell tour the only crowds that greeted him were protesters. Obama has visited European countries and been very popular. Europeans see him as a way to mend relationships between the two continents. I guess most of us Europeans just see McCain as another Bush.

Re the energy situation. I'm a supporter of using conventional nuclear power and alternatives (Solar, wind) until the nuclear fusion is a reality. A test rest reactor has been in the UK for years and a commercial prototype reactor is being built in France now.

Bush has been popular in Africa for three reasons: his funding for HIV initiatives, his funding for malaria initiatives, and the creation of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA). The MCA is one of the few successful policies of Bush's administration; of course, for those who do not study international politics, it is a relatively unknown program. 

I am not surprised at Obama's popularity in Europe-especially Continental Europe (CE). I think it is a fair assessment that Obama wishes to focus more on US relations with Continental Europe-especially Berlin and Paris.

1. Western Europe as a whole is much more liberal than the US
2. The European press is much more liberal than the already-liberal American press, thus Obama has even more favorable coverage (if you believe he can get more favorable coverage) there

We ran a story today about food experts worldwide pushing spuds to end global hunger. Even poor countries could grow their own potatoes.

Experts push potatoes to end global hunger

With governments having trouble feeding the growing number of hungry poor and grain prices fluctuating wildly, food scientists are proposing a novel solution for the global food crisis: Let them eat potatoes.

Grains like wheat and rice have long been staples of diets in most of the world and the main currency of food aid. Now, a number of scientists, nutritionists and aid specialists are increasingly convinced that the humble spud should be playing a much larger role to ensure a steady supply of food in the developing world.

Poor countries could grow more potatoes, they say, to supplement or even replace grains that are most often shipped in from far away and are subject to severe market gyrations.

Even before a sharp price spike earlier this year, governments in countries from China to Peru to Malawi had begun urging both potato growing and eating as a way to ensure food security and build rural income.

Production in China rose 50 percent from 2005 to 2007, and the government has called potatoes "a way out of poverty."

Source: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/world/6078166.html

*sigh* my friend hates McCain.

It CAN be a problem, but it is not just related to US policies on bio fuel. If the discussion is about converting american corn into ethanol, then fine, no greater harm done. With a funcional global framework on food chains and food production it can actually work out pretty well. A lot of countries in africa are having a bad agricultural output because of the (yes, I'm being a bit economically liberal here) lack of incitement to grow crops, because imports are destroying the domestic as well as the export markets.