The Wall Street Journal reports on the rising price of corn due to ethanol production.

The price for corn — the nation’s No. 1 crop and one of the most ubiquitous ingredients in the American food supply — has jumped nearly 55% since mid-September, when U.S. corn farmers began harvesting their third-biggest crop ever. Grain prices usually slump to their lowest levels of the year during the harvest season. Yet the price of corn in recent weeks has shot through the rarely breached $3-a-bushel mark and appears headed higher.

“The consequences of ethanol are the biggest thing going on in agriculture today,” says Keith Collins, chief economist of the U.S. Agriculture Department. “We are talking about a higher new benchmark for corn.”