Worried about America’s addiction to foreign oil, President George W. Bush is pushing home-made moonshine instead. The White House has put its faith in ethanol – alcohol made from plants and used as a fuel substitute.

Farmers are heeding the call. Total US acreage devoted to corn – the country’s main fuel crop – in 2007/08 looks set to be the highest since 1944. May corn futures have fallen by 10 per cent since that information was released on Friday. More acreage for corn, however, comes at the expense of land available for the likes of wheat and soybeans. And as more crops are diverted into energy use, so stocks available for eating fall.