UN shows a little sense

Here's a link to the Register's editorial on this week's meeting of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization in Rome this week, calling attention to what has become a pretty bona fide food crisis in many parts of the world. The UN has mentioned developed countries' biofuel programs (read: ethanol) as contributing to rising prices and serious shortages. It has also criticized export controls in countries, noting correctly that they are a disincentive to increased production. Maybe it's only when it really is a matter of life or death that the UN can find something sensible to say. But it did so this time.