I agree that there are those factors and many others, some of which are using corn for ethanol, increases in one food commodity causing alternatives to be sought which influences the prices of others, weather variations, etc., that drive market prices.
Certainly the cost of fuels being higher most certainly bubbles through the rest of the economy and pushes up prices in general.
Food stamp funds come out of the general fund, I believe a little less than half of which is borrowed (by the issuance of Treasury debt). It's not "created" money that's the problem, it's money that come from current taxes and future taxes that's the problem.
Also, if food stamps were abolished as they should be, those people would still eat, the food money would simply come from another source, i.e., a job, family, charities, etc.
Smelling the most wonderful commodity, coffee...
For a nice picture of how "the powers that be", i.e., "big food" has been thinking and planning for the past couple decades, I found it interesting to go back and peruse some web pages of the International Food & Agricultural Trade Policy Council's website.
Here is donor/funding page text:
"IPCFunding and Donors Annual Structural Support, 2011
* Bunge North America (United States)
* Croplife International (Belgium)
* Fonterra Cooperative Group, Ltd. (New Zealand)
* International Fertilizer Association
* Deere & Company (United States)
* Nederlandse Zuivel Organisatie (The Netherlands)
* Nestlé (Switzerland)
* Rabobank International (The Netherlands)
* Syngenta International AG (Switzerland)
* UNICA (Brazil)
* Unilever N.V. (The Netherlands)
* Universal Corporation (United States)
* Vion (The Netherlands)
* World Wildlife Fund (United States)
Project Support and In-Kind Support, 2011
* Hogan Lovells US LLP
* Illinois Farm Bureau
* The German Marshall Fund of the United States
* Crop Life International
* The Chicago Council on Global Affairs
* The European Commission
© 2007 International Food & Agricultural Trade Policy Council
1616 P Street, NW, Suite 100
Washington, DC 20036
tel: 1.202.328.5056
fax: 1.202.328.5133
email: agritrade@agritrade.org "
Here's a nice page with some of their position papers...
http://www.agritrade.org/Publications/index.html#positionpapers
If you take the time to carefully analyze the plentiful "strategies" they outline, you'll find at the heart of it the concerns of providing markets for big business in every nation, cutting their costs and regulations, in every nation, allowing them to operate basically any way they want, all in the name of "feeding the poor" and making food access more "equitable". For modern countries that are wealthy and can easily produce natural and wonderful foods to plentifully provide for their own citizens, this organization seems to say hey, get with the program and drop your selfish self interests. So Americans need to share their beef, French need to share their wine, etc. Spread the wealth and pass the potatoes.
I did not know about this organization until just now. I trust less than 1% of Americans know about this organization. It's just one; there are many and varied big business interests.
Many people don't like "Agenda 21". It comes from the same type of place: globalists; big business, politicians, academia and the media getting together.
There were some astonishing lines in some of these papers in terms of their assault on national sovereignty.
Here are position paper titles for those too "busy" to click...
* Biofuel and Biomass Subsidies in the U.S., EU and Brazil
September 2010 (Position Paper)
* CSIS Global Food Security Project: The Role of Markets and Trade in Food Security
June 2010
* The Doha Round and Alternative Options for Creating a Fair and Market-Oriented Agricultural Trade System
November 2009
* Strategic Framework for Food Security in APEC
November 2009
* ICTSD-IPC Platform on Climate Change, Agriculture and Trade: Considerations for Policymakers
October 2009 (ICTSD-IPC Platform on Climate Change, Agriculture and Trade
Promoting Policy Coherence)
* Agricultural Export Restrictions: Welfare Implications and Trade Disciplines
January 2009
* The Domestic Impact of Export Restrictions: The Case of Argentina
July 2008
* Reconciling Food Safety with Import Facilitation Objectives: Helping Developing Country Producers Meet U.S. and EU Food Requirements Through Transatlantic Cooperation
June 2008
* Making Agricultural Trade Reform Work for the Poor
June 2005
* A New Approach to Special and Differential Treatment
September 2004
* Agenda Options for Agricultural Policy Reform in the Seattle Round
September 1999
* State Trading and The WTO: Reforming the Rules for Agriculture
September 1999
* Reforming Global Meat Policy and Regulations
November 1998
* Plant Biotechnology and Global Food Production: Trade Implications
October 1998
* Building a Global Open Food System August 1998
* The Role of Regionalism in Agricultural Trade Reform
June 1998
* Agriculture and EU Enlargement to the East March 1997
* Attaining Global Food Security by 2025 November 1996
* Dairy Policy in the Post-Uruguay Round Era August 1996
* Sugar Policy in the Post-Uruguay Round Era August 1996
Many conservatives and libertarians oppose certain agendas while they support various big businesses and industries out of a sense of free enterprise - but don't realize that often the businesses they support are the main proponents of the agendas they oppose.