Ethanol, Rome and Roses

The push to get ethanol from corn reminds me of a story I once read. I'm a rose aficionado, so I read about them in various publications. There was a story of a time when Rome nearly starved. It seems rose attar (the scent), rose petals and roses themselves became so wildly popular that farmers around Rome stopped growing wheat, turning their entire agricultural production to producing rose products for Caesars and rich Romans.

We're burning food in our vehicles and watching food prices go through the roof. If imperfectly, history does repeat itself. As the Dutch tulip market becomes a metaphor for bubble economics, Rome's roses becomes one for giving up food for a luxury, in our case, E85 at $1.80 per gallon.