You know what rises food prices? Ethanol. There's plenty of farmland that could be devoted to actual food crops if ethanol subsides were eliminated and it wasn't required to be put in gasoline anymore.
False.
Not nearly enough. Maybe to feed the western world, perhaps, but there are what, 7 BILLION of us on this planet now, what about everyone else? There were starving people in the third world long before ethanol crops grew in number? We're already overfarming our land horribly anyways. What happens when oil runs out? And it will happen, one day, allthough hopefully not soon. We're artificially renewing our farmland with fertilizers derived from you guessed it: petrochemicals. When those dissapear, then what? The Western World must consume less if humanity is to ultimately survive on this planet.
Mix in the fact that billions are still receiving inadequate food and this whole 'blame it on ethanol' argument is just false.
On the topic of 'peace' in general, my unfortunate perspective is that humanity needs a boogeyman. It seems that people truly unite when they have a common enemy. That enemy has always been some other group of people. I think that we are fast going to realize that our enemy is scarcity of resources, not other people, and perhaps that will drive us together.
What's really going to count is the decisions made by those in power when it all comes to a head. There simply needs to be a fundamental restructuring in how the global economy functions. All this work right now? It's all just patch up to lessen the blow when it comes. If and when the United States defaults on its debt (and it will happen, there is simply the question of when) the global economy will go into a deathspiral. Responsible restructuring could lead to this ultimate peace because frankly, war has always just been an instrument of taking things from those you perceive as having something that should rightfully be yours, or defending against those people.
Eliminate the divide between the haves and the have-nots, or at least make it as small as possible, and I think general human nature would be to live in peace in that situation. Those willing to war for their own goals simply wouldn't be able to martial support if everyone was generally equal. Until then though, there will be those that will take from us by force. And we must be prepared to destroy them when they attack us.
Humanity has been swinging the economic pendulum back and forth all over the world for hundreds of years. One day we will find the balance that works best, and I think ultimately we will then know peace.
Or aliens could arrive, like I said. Nothing unites humanity like a common enemy.
Edit: I'm by no means a communist, but I think right wing economics could be tempered a little bit more left. The basis of the economic system that runs the world right now is to pit one person against another which ultimately breeds conflict into us. Once again, I think war and peace are determined largely by economics. Fix them, fix war.
