Germany's cheap beer under threat from biofuels

It could happen here in the USA, too...

Brewers and farmers say an extremely poor barley harvest in 2006 has exacerbated an emerging trend of converting barley fields to growing the plants used in biofuels, such as rape seed. The amount of land used for growing barley in Germany is receding by five percent a year.



The march of biofuels is inexorable. Of the 12 million hectares farmed in Germany, two million are already being used for plants which can be turned into biofuel.



"Biofuels are monopolizing the land," said Manfred Weizbauer, the head of the German millers' federation, which is calling for a cut in the subsidies granted to biofuel crops.

Read more at China Post, of all places.