Will A Drought Affect the Price of Ethanol?
In his 1798 Essay on the Principle of Population, English political economist Thomas Robert Malthus concluded that we humans are doomed to endure cycles of innovation, growth and massive famine as we outstrip our available resources. Subsequent economists earned their stripes discrediting his methodology, but numerous localized famines around the world have unfolded, more-or-less validating the patterns Malthus described. Over time, the term “Malthusian Economics” has come to describe any gloomy scenario in which a population exceeds the means to feed them. Fast forward to modern times. The world finds itself once again in a bit of a Malthusian dilemma, but with a twist: Strong political tensions have arisen as weather extremes of drought and flooding have threatened the harvest of
