Ethanol No Longer Seen as Big Driver of Food Price

Heavy demand for corn from ethanol makers was seen as a key driver of corn futures to record highs in June, but since then the sharp decline of corn along with other commodities shows that belief was mistaken.

Corn is down about 50 percent from its record high in June, even as the amount of the grain used to produce the renewable fuel in the United States remained the same.

"The record high prices were a speculative bubble,"said Stewart Ramsey, senior economist for Global Insight, Philadelphia.

"We had a lot of reasons for prices to go up and to go up a lot and ethanol use was one of those,"he added.