Posted on 07/28/2012 8:10:15 AM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
Please share a source.
The Soviet Union had bad weather for 70+ years. This reminds me of this...
Getting people ready for the food inflation next year when all the funny money hits.
Did you read #12? Ethanol tariffs have expired.
Besides, the question is tongue-in-cheek. The only real use of ethanol in fuel while cheap petroleum is available is as an oxygenate.
When gasoline gets expensive enough, the market will provide alternative fuels.
Stock up on plenty of pasta - “the other white meat”.
Where do you see that?
Modern farming methods allow for more crops to be produced per acre.
This might be of interest: http://ethanolproducer.com/articles/8563/billion-gallons-u-s-ethanol-exported-brazil-top-destination
Wow looks like another possible tragedy for Obama to exploit.
I can almost see him licking his lips and wringing his hands now.
Good find. I was aware that Brazilian ethanol supplies have been tight. Any sugar source is a crop like any other, suffering from vagaries of weather and markets.
Agriculture subsidies of all kinds are understandable given justifiable fears of actual food shortages. Maybe not right, but understandable.
You did not say that in your posting. I had to go to the linked article.
They're right and you're wrong. There are many varieties of corn, optimized for different uses. Corn for "corn on the cob" (aka "sweet corn") is not the same as the corn used for cattle feed, which not the same as corn used in (for instance) tortillas, or canning, or........on and on. And that is before the geneticists and "gene-splicing" got into the act.
Look up "maize" on Wikipedia
Is it time to introduce Compressed Natural Gas as a vehicle fuel yet? CNG has the advantage of being just about the cleanest burning fuel out there, it is widely available with new supplies coming on line all the time, and when adequate safeguards are in place and maintained, it is probably almost as safe as Diesel fuel.
Much greater care while refueling is essential, because even the smallest leak has the potential of becoming a blowtorch, and in the event of a rupture, the least spark can create a lethal fireball that can flatten city blocks and cause a very intense firestorm that approaches a high explosive or small nuke.
Cruel fact in conjunction with an atmosphere that is 20% oxygen, one of the most destructive chemical elements in the Universe (only fluorine is more reactive, and it is NEVER found in a free state.)
You see there? Another man smarter than I who says we cannot eat corn used for Ethanol production. No matter how hungry we are.
CNG seems a good idea. Are you arguing for a government program?
Oh yeah, there will shortly be a string of posts arguing that only 195os technology is reasonable. hehe
Can't find one. I know I've read it but now I see a percentage is now cellulosic based which isn't highly regarded. I stand corrected (even though I am sitting). I guess I'll retract.
This is pretty basic; no offense, but I am always amazed at the lack of knowledge about agriculture!
Corn that people eat directly (lets call it sweet corn); corn on the cob, canned corn, etc; is a TINY amount of acreage and is a totally different (family) type of corn. Sweet corn production really has no relationship to field corn. Other than looking kind of the same (it is shorter).
Field corn is the mast majority of corn grown in the US and the world and is what goes into ethanol production. I suppose it could be eaten fresh (on the cob) but it wouldn't have much taste. It matures and fills the kernal and then dents and dries down so it can be harvested with a combine. The cobs and husks are left in the field.
Field corn can go to a ethanol plant; or be run through a feed mill. A feed mill would grind it kind of like corn meal. Then mineral and vitamins would be added as well as a protein supplement (most often soybean meal) Soybean meal is produced after the oil is extracted from soybeans, and the soybeans are ground to the proper consistency. The mixture is different depending on what animals you are feeding.
Cattle and dairy cows would also be getting a roughage added (hay or some other fibrous material)
When the corn is run through an ethanol plant; there is a substantial part of the nutrients left called dried distillers grains (DDG). DDG is a high quality feed that works well in livestock production. The DDG are high in protein and can partially substitute for soybean meal.
But a percentage of the kernel is consumed for the ethanol. That percentage of the kernel would have made good livestock feed if it had been fed directly to livestock (cattle, chickens (eggs and meat), pigs or dairy).
I should know the numbers on that; but I don't have it in front of me.
So bottom line line is that ethanol production probably isn't the best thing for us to be doing. But it is not as bad a thing as some people say it is. It is also not as good a thing as some say!
I say get rid of any governmental incentives to use it and let the market place decide.
Yep! Drill here, drill now and stop burning corn and other food.
Like Ann Barnhardt?
She has been ringing the alarm bell for a long time. Totally closed her brokerage business because she was/is convinced that the entire commodities trading market is going to collapse. Because of internal fraud.
She has for over a year advised AG producers to hold physical possession of their production rather than hedging with anyone.
Your post:
Please explain ethanol subsidies.
Your tagline:
Ya could look it up!
ROFLMAO
DeaconBenjamin = Parson Malthus
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