I read the linked editorial. Written by a guy from Nebraska, I'm not
the least bit surprised about the claims it makes, but that doesn't
make them true. I'm from Kansas myself and am familiar with these arguments.
His "Myth 1" is, effectively, a lie. Drawing a distinction between
feedstock corn and human corn is horribly disingenuous. The truth is
that any cropland planted in "feed" corn could have been planted in
"food" corn. If farmers planted "feed" corn (correctly believing it
will be in high demand for use in ethanol production) then that is
land which won't be used for "food" grains.
The remainder of his "myths" (2, 3, and 4) are rephrased versions of
the same (false) claim, i.e. that utilizing corn for ethanol isn't
affecting supply/prices. This too is despicably disingenuous. Food
is THE economics textbook example of inflexible demand and the
resulting steep demand/price curve. The facts are a) people have to
eat no matter how great the cost and b) they can only eat so much
regardless of how small the cost. Nearly 20% of corn went to ethanol
in 2006 and it is approaching 50% in 2008 despite more and more land
is being planted in corn (and, thus, not in other crops). Thus,
large-scale use in ethanol production has a tremendous impact on food
prices and can easily quadruple them as has, in fact, happened.
Finally, there is what the author conveniently failed to
mention: Many scientists calculate that it takes as much or more
energy to produce ethanol as can be obtained from it. The result,
then, is no net energy savings, but enormous (and awful) unintended
environmental and economic consequences.
M.
P.S. It is important to distinguish between grain-based ethanol and
sugar cane and/or celuulosic ethanol. These latter sources are much
more efficient.
At 09:35 PM 8/5/2008, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
E85 is often made from feed corn, but not from food corn. Filling up
with E85 may cause beef prices to rise, but it is no secr
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