Filed under: Ethanol, Manufacturing/Plants, Legislation and Policy
Corn growers may like ethanol boom, but other farmers can get hurt
Economists are wondering if the current ethanol craze could hurt farmers of other crops. Behind the government's incentive programs to develop ethanol plants, prices for maize have made corn farmers very happy. Other farmers have invested these co-op plants, as well. The economists worry that farmers of other crops will have to contend with volatile oil prices as well as draught, flood, insects and other agricultural hurdles.
"Tying a large part of agriculture to oil is to introduce vagaries and risks to an already risky business," said C. Ford Runge, who is from the University of Minnesota's Center for International Food and Agricultural Policy.
The worry is if oil prices come down, farmers who have invested will be hurt. I guess that's why they call investing a gamble.
[Source: Mike Meyers / Minneapolis-St Paul Star Tribune via Detroit News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Howard Lee Harkness 12:37PM (3/28/2007)
A bigger risk to corn farmers is that ethanol producers will discover that there are better feedstocks available for this mediocre fuel. Even bigger is that folks will discover that there are at least two other alternative fuels that are quite a bit superior.
Even if ethanol becomes the dominant bio-fuel (I sure hope not), the corn farmers are going to be cut out of the loop as soon as their Political Correctness is no longer deemed useful by ADM.
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Owain Ozymandias Buck 7:40AM (3/29/2007)
"The economists worry that farmers of other crops will have to contend with volatile oil prices as well as draught [sic], flood, insects and other agricultural hurdles."
Well no shit. Welcome to the world of the farm. Which of those things don't we already deal with? I get a chuckle when folks discover what farming is all about. It's good to learn though.
The markets have always changed like this--and farmers have always adjusted to them, sometimes with more success, sometimes they lose their shirts. That's why they're wary. But that's why enterprising, innovative farmers stand to make a killing from new and changing markets.
Bioenergy may not be the long term solution to our energy needs, and of course we stand to gain more from improved efficiency than anything else, but in the short term, it should help more farmers than it hurts. If nothing else, it may be a way for the shrewd grower to make himself energy independent--an automated, efficient small scale process for on-farm biofuels could take you off of the oil price treadmill. Who knows?
Oh, and when faced with severe D-R-O-U-G-H-T, a good, cold "draught" would be rather nice--help you forget your sickly, money sucking, Steinbeckian fields. Thank God for crop insurance.
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Xoham 11:13PM (3/30/2007)
Ethanol isn't a great idea anyway. Here's more on what the University had to say about Ethanol. Read the title:
http://www.alumni.umn.edu/Corn_Wont_Save_the_Planet.html
If not Ethanol, then what? Electric vehicles, that's what. http://www.efcf.com/e/reports/E17.pdf
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