Well, maybe I shouldn’t be so critical: I don’t read Krugman’s column; I’m only exposed to his views when they’re passed down through the lenses of conservative commentators, or Bill O’Reilly. (Who, by the way, is not a conservative commentator.)

But I’m impressed with Krugman’s latest, from the New York Times:

These days you hear a lot about the world financial crisis. But there’s another world crisis under way — and it’s hurting a lot more people.

I’m talking about the food crisis. Over the past few years the prices of wheat, corn, rice and other basic foodstuffs have doubled or tripled, with much of the increase taking place just in the last few months. High food prices dismay even relatively well-off Americans — but they’re truly devastating in poor countries, where food often accounts for more than half a family’s spending.

How did this happen? The answer is a combination of long-term trends, bad luck — and bad policy.

Let’s start with the things that aren’t anyone’s fault.

First, there’s the march of the meat-eating Chinese — that is, the growing number of people in emerging economies who are, for the first time, rich enough to start eating like Westerners. Since it takes about 700 calories’ worth of animal feed to produce a 100-calorie piece of beef, this change in diet increases the overall demand for grains.

Second, there’s the price of oil. Modern farming is highly energy-intensive: a lot of B.T.U.’s go into producing fertilizer, running tractors and, not least, transporting farm products to consumers. With oil persistently above $100 per barrel, energy costs have become a major factor driving up agricultural costs.

High oil prices, by the way, also have a lot to do with the growth of China and other emerging economies. Directly and indirectly, these rising economic powers are competing with the rest of us for scarce resources, including oil and farmland, driving up prices for raw materials of all sorts.

[Third, bad policy is strongly evident] in the rise of demon ethanol and other biofuels.

The subsidized conversion of crops into fuel was supposed to promote energy independence and help limit global warming. But this promise was, as Time magazine bluntly put it, a “scam.”

This is especially true of corn ethanol: even on optimistic estimates, producing a gallon of ethanol from corn uses most of the energy the gallon contains.

And meanwhile, land used to grow biofuel feedstock is land not available to grow food, so subsidies to biofuels are a major factor in the food crisis. You might put it this way: people are starving in Africa so that American politicians can court votes in farm states.

We… need a pushback against biofuels, which turn out to have been a terrible mistake.

Right on, Mr. Krugman. Has he been listening to Rush Limbaugh lately, because Rush raises almost precisely the same points.

Seriously, though, are you alarmed by how high food prices are getting? Case in point: the other day I paid $2.70 for a dozen jumbo eggs — at a Shop-Rite in the Poconos! I didn’t even pay that much for eggs when I lived in New York City — and I eat a lot of eggs, so I carefully note prices.

My ultimate point of this post? Eat eggs; they’re good for you.