Brewers Increase Prices

In an article published in The News-Herald titled "Brewers Increase Prices" claims that beer prices are going up because farmers decreased hops acreage in favor of other crops, like corn for ethanol. They also suggest that the same thing has happened with barley.

Well, just how true are these claims?

Hops

Area Harvested 2006 29,400 acres, 2007 31,000 acres.
Production 2006 57,671,800 pounds, 2007 60,570,700 pounds

Barley

Area Harvested 2006 2,951,000 acres, 2007 3,508,000 acres
Production 2006 180,165,000 bushels, 2007 211,825 bushels

All these numbers are published by the USDA and can be found in their November Report