For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: the food crisis:

• Farmers and food executives appealed fruitlessly to federal officials yesterday for regulatory steps to limit speculative buying that is helping to drive food prices higher.

• Bay Area Shoppers Asked To Limit Rice Purchases

• Gordon Brown responded to mounting concerns about the global rise in food prices by signalling that he might scale back Britain’s commitment to biofuels, which critics say has exacerbated the food crisis because land has been given over to grow crops for energy rather than food.

How serious do you think this "food crisis" is? How much of a factor is ethanol? How much is it being exacerbated by hedge funds and speculators driving prices higher much as what is happening in oil? Are there any solutions, or like any speculative bubble, does it just have to play itself out?