AutoblogGreen

The cost of corn itself is not much of a worry. The increase in prices of many OTHER foods as a result of this bad corn ethanol policy is the concern worth caring about.

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Corn ethanol isn't causing a food shortage in the US, it's causing world market prices of sugar-rich white corn varieties to rise. The difference may be small, but for the poorest of the poor in places like Mexico, it quickly translates into real hardship.

Surplus yellow corn in the US is used as animal feed rather than exported.

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So, oil goes up 4x in the last five years and corn goes up 2x, and it's ethanol driving food inflation? Hate to tell you the price of oil drives a LOT more of the price of food than corn. Take a look at the inflation adjusted price of corn today. It's at one of the lowest points in history. Oil is at its inflation adjusted high. The argument against ethanol simply doesn't add up.

If the availability of corn is so important to you, would you rather have multiple sources of demand that ensure a stable price, stable profits and therefore strong, stable supply of this commodity or would you rather have only one source of demand, variable prices, and scattered corn production?

Let the farmers make a decent return and they will produce more corn than you know what to do with, ethanol consumption included.

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The greens are amazing to me, for years they have lamented on how corn is such a lousey foodstock and is unhealthy for cattle. The argument is that because of their corn diet they require antibiotics, blah, blah blah.... Now if corn prices rise and become too expensive to use as a feed stock it is the end of the world. Make up your mind.

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HoosierRon linked an article I wrote some time back as a source for some of his information. In it I looked at the effect of the shift from soybeans to corn acres and noted the feed grains that increased acreage last year.

http://americanfuels.blogspot.com/2008/01/is-ethanol-taking-food-out-of-peoples.html

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Despite all the "raw data", ethanol is a bad idea, and the backlash will continue to build.
The greenies latched onto the wrong answer.

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The increased cost of gas and diesel makes it more expensive to plant, harvest, and transport all food products, and that is what is making food more expensive. That, plus speculators on the commodities exchanges that bid up the "futures" prices based on anything that hits the news, just so they can make a buck.

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"Corn ethanol isn't causing a food shortage in the US, it's causing world market prices of sugar-rich white corn varieties to rise. The difference may be small, but for the poorest of the poor in places like Mexico, it quickly translates into real hardship. Surplus yellow corn in the US is used as animal feed rather than exported."

Your sources? The US exports HUGE amounts of yellow corn. White corn is produced in Mexico for the local market -- there is little if any connection between yellow dent corn prices in the US and the price of tortillas in Mexico City. It's just another anti-ethanol urban myth.

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Corn inflation is responsable for 4% of the inflation related to food products. Oil and currency devaluation is responsable for 96% of food inflation. The comments that corn is plentiful is correct. It is more plentiful today than it was 5 or 10 years ago.

Meanwhile, ethanol has applied downward pressure to fuel prices even though they have risen. Without ethanol, gas would likely be $4 today.

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I don't think "the greenies" latched onto ethanol. I'm a greenie, and I didn't. Most of the greenies I know don't, either.

Big business (agribusiness, mostly, but there are automakers guilty of this, too) uses ethanol as a greenwash. It's a low-cost option _for suppliers_ to look green.

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Don't we have a surplus of corn syrup globally. We use corn syrup in EVERYTHING as a sweetener, but we still have a surplus. I don't think ethanol will make a dent in the surplus. Corn is actually not very good for us is it?

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Pilgrim's Pride Cutting 1,100 Jobs, Blames Ethanol
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200803120942DOWJONESDJONLINE000649_FORTUNE5.htm

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Hey Paul, that Pilgrim's Pride article on CNN must not have been PC enough because it's gone now. Found it elsewhere though.

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