Back when they tried to pass this off as "oxygenated" fuel that is "good for the environment", I had a '91 fuel injected Jeep. Gas consumption on my carburetted vehicles stayed about the same, but the Jeep dropped some 8 - 12% because the extra oxygen fooled the injection controller into thinking it was running too lean.
As for increasing food prices, there just isn't enough food in food to make much of a difference. A $4.29 box of cornflakes contains about 10 cents worth of corn, so a 20% increase in corn prices would drive the price up to a whole $4.31.
On the bright side, if they keep throwing up 'gasahol' and 'biofuel' plants, maybe some of the commodity traders will hop over to corn and soybean futures and oil will drop to the $35 - $40 a barrel range where it should be.
If nothing else, the down south bootleggers now have a legitimate business to go into and, when corn and soybean prices go up, there will be an incentive to find other cheaper oil alternatives. After all, with the Allies bombing the snot out of the Ploeste oil fields and the Russians managing to keep them out of theirs, the Germans were able to make synthetic fuel and lubricants in greater quantities than were used in the making.
