It wasn 't long ago that the nutrition experts warned us that corn is evil. The line was that corn syrup, used as a low-cost sweetener, was largely responsible for childhood obesity, empty calories and tooth decay.

The documentary "King Corn " received its first Midwest showing at the 2007 Wisconsin Film Festival. A colleague from The Capital Times said the movie "makes a powerful case that a glut of high-productivity, low-quality corn is wrecking havoc on America 's diet and its environment. "

Corn was selling for $2.20 a bushel, and we tut-tutters were alarmed there was too much of it and that the government was spending too much money on crop subsidies.

That 's not true anymore. Now, we 're devoting a quarter of our corn crop to motor fuel. The price of corn is more than $6 a bushel, and the crop subsidies are no longer necessary. Yet, as the farmers note, higher fuel and fertilizer charges mean it now costs the farmer about $4.50 a bushel to produce the corn.

And are we tut-tutters happy? No, we are not. We are alarmed that there is a food shortage around the world, and we 're blaming ethanol production for everything from the high price of wheat to global warming. Also, we 're concerned that the government is subsidizing the cost of ethanol to the tune of 50 cents a gallon or so.

This week, 24 Republican senators, including presidential candidate John McCain, called on environmental regulators to slow the expansion of ethanol plants.

Wisconsin farmers last summer planted 3.3 million acres of corn and found an average yield of 145 bushels per acre, according to the Department of Agriculture. Who knows how much corn will be planted this year? It has to stop raining before the farmers can get to work.

I do hope, however, that we can solve the corn paradox without, at the same time, destroying the corn farmers.

What is good news for Wisconsin farmers is good news for the rest of us, too. Farmers who have been struggling with low corn prices will now, we hope, be able to purchase new tractors and pickups. They will buy new furniture for their homes and authorize school referendums to help their kids.

Besides, there are worse things than having too much of a good thing like corn.

Around the world, the real food problem is a shortage of rice and of wheat. Haiti 's government was toppled by food riots. Food riots have also been reported in Egypt, the Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique, Bolivia, Uzbekistan and Burkina Faso. (OK, I looked it up. Burkina Faso is a country in West Africa north of Ghana).

According to Jacques Diouf, director of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, world food prices have increased 45 percent in the past nine months. That 's a big deal in lands where many live on a dollar or two a day.

If it would help those hungry people to divert our corn crop from ethanol to food for the poor, I 'd be all for it. But I don 't know quite how we do that.

In the meantime, it might be helpful to the Wisconsin farmer as he plans this year 's planting if the rest of us decide whether we want his corn or whether we don 't.

Contact Wineke at bwineke@madison.com or at 252-6146. Read Wineke 's blog at www.madison.com/wsj/blogs.