What does Iowa’s Republican senator do when confronted with the argument that using gas to grow corn in order to make more gas is contributing to the rise in food prices around the world? Well, to paraphrase, he says those selfish Chinese people should stick to eating rice and we’d all be fine.
I love it — that ability to deflect blame and focus it elsewhere.
Honestly though, wow. First, grassley ignores the legitimate criticism of the ethanol industry that Iowa (and other locations) are currently profiting from and points the finger elsewhere. THEN he points it not at AMERICAN meat-eaters, pretty much the most prolific of them all, but at meat-eaters in China who are simply becoming more americanized in their eating habits. I’m not saying that I want Chinese people to eat more meat obviously, and I believe it’s a huge problem that they are going in that direction, but the ridiculous hypocrisy of grassley’s statement just irritates me. Instead of focusing on what others are doing wrong and becoming paralyzed, why not focus on what WE can most definitely change — our own production and consumption of certain products? This whole “I don’t have to change anything because others are doing equally bad/worse things” is immature, counterproductive, and it’s getting pretty old.
