[Former Proud Canadian]

We obviously have different definitions of "surplus". At $7 a bushel, how can there be any surplus? Sell your "surplus". If you cannot recover your cost of production, switch to another crop.

As I stated before, if you can make money turning corn into ethanol, go ahead. But you can't. You need a government subsidy and tariff barriers. The government is borrowing 40 cents of every dollar to subsidize the ethanol industry. The tariff is just a tax by another name.

[Balding_Eagle]

Surplus; The American Farmers produce more foodstuffs than our citizens can consume.

This has been going on since at least the 1950’s, and for a long period of time the US government managed the problem with a ‘Cheap Food for Consumers’ program most often labeled ‘The Farm Program’. There were constant cries of paying farmers not to plant.

With the advent of ethanol, farmers began receiving enough return on their investment, and as a result, most no longer use ‘The Cheap Food for Consumers’ programs.

Now there are cries that food is too expensive.

Too bad, the consumer got what they wished for, no more paying farmers not to plant. Too bad they weren’t wise enough to see what getting their wish would all entail.