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Henry, your original message contends that ethanol (made from corn, which does not much compete with wheat, as corn needs water, wheat does not, so there is only minor overlapping ground) and the high cost farmers are getting for grains is to blame for the high cost of flour & bread. I disagree with you on that on both points, as I explained. Here you are saying it costs a lot to turn raw grain into flour. I agree with you on that. Energy, especially transportation, has grown tremendously in price. Govt regulation has added costs at every single turn in manufaturing. And so on. Then most middle processors tend to work on a percentage, so if it costs 2x as much to process their step, they seem to charge double their fee as well, adding to their profit & saying what you did - oh it's all someone else's fault the price went up..... I can agree with you on this costs and profits of middle men have gone up. But, now, you have said 2 different things, so we are very clear here; I still disagree with your original message. Ethanol has little to nothing to do with the price of flour made from wheat or rye. Heck, I live in the shadow of 5-6 ethanol plants, and wheat planting is increasing the last couple years around me, from almost zero to at least we see a wheat field every now & then. Very little of the cost of a loaf of bread gets back to a farmer, very much of the cost of a loaf of bread goes to transportation, middle men processing, and advertising. I think it is poor of you to try to blame farmers or ethanol for the rising cost of bread, as there is no connection at all. No problems, I'm just chatting with you because it is about zero here for temp, got not much else to do. Don't mean to harp and not ranting, just explaining my point of view. :) --->Paul
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