Posted on 10/27/2007 11:33:03 AM PDT by BGHater
Yep, and this illustrates the danger of subsidies. More of the same, likely, will worsen the problem.
Because domestic demand for corn for use in biofuels is higher in the United States, which pushes the price up. Now you tell ME this: why should I give a tinker's damn about the price of tortillas in Mexico? Did Mexico worry about how much it was charging for its lousy, high-sulfur crude? Or did they price that oil consistent with international demand?
Is it to bring the poor up to their (sellers) level?
No, it's to make as much money for a bushel of corn as possbile. How is that wrong to do with corn but perfectly acceptable with other commodities?
Wow! even a broken clock is right twice a day
follow the money and you will likely find Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill
ADM has taken over TN.
1) Corn isn’t eaten directly by humans anyway, and
2) If a UN “expert” claims today will be sunny and warm, don’t leave home without your coat and umbrella.
Sure, that was the war MTBE vs ethanol. Joe Sixpack lost.
I forgot.
Brilliant rebuttal.
It’s a marketing thingy from 82’ :^)
“The growth in the production of biofuels has been driven, in part, by the desire to find less environmentally-damaging alternatives to oil.”
The Wall Street Journal editorial on this Oct 17. In addition to using up good farm land and driving up food prices, corn production for the purpose of making ethanol is causing a water crisis in the mid west. The direct production of ethanol, plus the irrigation for the addtional corn required, necessitates 1700 gallons of water per gallon of ethanol. According to one study, the US would need to convert 43% of its farmland to corn production in order to add replace 10% of its gasoline and diesel fuel with ethanol. Talk about environmental damage.
Not only that, but using corn to produce ethanol will cause a net increase in green house gases compared to gasoline made from petroleum. This is largely due to the fact that the manufacture of fertilizers used for this purpose releases nitrous oxide into the atmosphere. This gas has a greenhouse effect that is 500 times as potent as carbon dioxide. But when it comes to dealing with a problem the government is absolutely masterful at taking a bad thing and making it worse. The “free trade” US government is imposing a 55 cents per gallon tarriff on Brazilian ethanol imports. Brazilian ethanol is made from cane sugar results in a net decrease in green house gases compared to petroleum gasoline.
Not to beat a dead horse, but sweet corn and yellow dent corn aren’t the same thing. You would grind your teeth off eating #2 yellow corn.
Are you sure? Have you considered what makes the crops they grow so worthless? It is, in general, food donations by the west, the US in particular as well as global abundance of food stuffs. Scarcity will drive the price up and their crops will have some value. They won't be so poor thereafter.
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