The Technology Review website reports that corn harvest in the midwestern United States for this year would likely decrease as a result of rains and floods which hit the area. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the corn crop this year will drop by 390 million bushels (approximately 9.9 million metric tons, for corn). Corn prices have already risen in recent months as a result of increased demands of the crop for biofuel production; the crop shortfall would inevitably exacerbate the price situation. Purdue University agricultural economics professor, Wallace Tyner, says that if corn prices rise further to $8/bushel or higher, a number of ethanol production plants might also be forced to shutdown. Since most of the ethanol in the United States is produced from corn feedstocks, the ethanol factory shutdowns would result in a decrease in ethanol production by 6.5 billion gallons. This would lead to higher prices for ethanol. The weather problems in the corn growing regions in the United States highlights one shortcoming of biofuels, which is, susceptibility to crop failures..