Posted on 11/26/2008 6:37:38 AM PST by IbJensen
Major driver behind food prices is cost of inputs—check out land, fuel, fertilizer, seed, and pesticides. I wonder about your experience in agribusiness? Please enlighten me.
Ethanol is a huge poke in the eye to the oil magnates in the middle east, venezuela, etc. Ethanol is mainly captured sun energy just as oil is but on an annual basis instead of millions of years.
Hear, hear. You are poking out the eyes of the oil magnates. They don’t want to hear about Brazil’s success.
Note that grain prices in the US have dropped by 50% yet food prices remain the same. Go figure.
“All energy alternatives require government sponsorship to succeed.”
- - -
Why do you say that?
The EPA is so stupid that they could hurl themselves at the ground and miss.
Haven’t we already PROVEN ethanol is a failure?
Haven’t we already wasted enough time and effort trying to re-invent or repeal the laws of thermodynamics?
The EPA is way out of control and needs to be held accountable for its actions. Criminally accountable, in most cases like MTBE.
Mythanol (not miss spelled) is an evil farce forced on Americans and those who depend on America for their food.
The Edsel had a lot of promise too until its wheels hit the showrooms.
Many researchers have found that the production of ethanol consumes more energy than it yields. Michael Grunwald, a qualified science journalist, has reported that one person could be fed 365 days "on the corn needed to fill an ethanol-fueled SUV" He further reports that though "hyped as an eco-friendly fuel, ethanol increases global warming, destroys forests and inflates food prices."
Recent articles blame subsidized ethanol production for the nearly 200% increase in milk prices since, since the price of fuel has driven up the costs to cultivate, grow, harvest, ship, refine, bring to market, etc, all commodities including, but not limited to, milk.
Articles also blame the presence of speculators, and the recent growing interest in the commodities market by investors who have been scared away from a falling stock market.
Ethanol production uses the starch portion of corn.
Last time I checked, fertilizer from the COOP had tripled from what I paid a few years ago. As a side note, I haven’t bought any.
I had hoped to try and revitalize this worn out land.
Having not experienced large-scale dirt farming first hand I, like many, refer to legitimate sources for furthering my knowledge on the subject.
I disagree that ethanol is a poke in the eye to OPEC. It is, rather, a poke in the eye and and insult to people who are capable of intelligent thought and discourse, which differs astronomically from our so-called central government nut-cases.
I have to ask, from what school of thought do you represent?
Nice to see Paul catching up. Just think of all that ADM and Cargill and all their minions in the House and Senate have done to assist the other side in this war with this delusional “solution.”
Why not point out that it helps the other side not ours?
At one point President Bush said he could “almost feel us growing out of” our dependence on foreign oil. Yeah, right.
--there is a big difference in cane sugar and corn due to a major ingredient called "sunlight"--
-—should be lauded as best post of the day-—
IF you’ll read through the responses it would appear we have some ADM and Cargill shills on board.
Stop using food crops to produce it. How about the Kudzu which I hear is becoming such a problem in warmer wetter states? Very prolific, no care required. Energy content, that I don’t know.
Which is why I would be more in favor of producing Methanol from say garbage or wood chips rather than corn based Ethanol.
But.. the government and the media will not let that ever to happen
E-85 is more expensive than regular in my hometown. Poor fuel mileage, gov. subsidies and costs more to boot. Isn’t that nice.
BS! What do you think beef, chickens, turkeys, etc eat?
Bump
nonsense. Corn growers were subsidized long before ethanol ever came along to be promoted as alternative fuels through farm subsidy programs, and still are.
The billions in subsidies is simply to build more ethanol infrastructure, modernize older less productive plants, and fund biotech research.
Ethanol is an excellent fuel with excellent potential, except to those who haven't a clue how an engine runs in the first place.
And no, "food" isn't being used to put in gas tanks. Ethanol production uses feed corn, which isn't even digestible to humans. The by-product of ethanol production is -animal feed. Nothing is taken away from the food industry by ethanol production. Again this is myth propagated by those who haven't a clue how ethanol is made, nor how many types of corn is grown and for what reason. Ethanol is also a superior fuel. IF it's burned in an engine designed to burn ethanol.
Stranghe how it is that people wouldn't dare put diesel fuel in a gas engine, and expect it to run, but they will put ethanol in a gas engine and expect it to run.
Sure it will, but it won't run as good as it could had the engine been built to burn ethanol, or at least very high ethanol/gasoline blends.
This requires completely different engine timing, much high compression ratios that gasoline today simply cannot tolerate.
The "Flex fuel" stupidity that came out of detroits auto plants is a bone headed idea. With ethanol available in many states, at a cost of $1.87 pure ethanol engines, and ethanol diesel engines should be powering cars, and would be twice as efficient as crappy gas engines made today.
they eat the byproduct left over from ethanol or corn syrup production, same as they always have.
All increased ethanol production does is increase animal feed production.
Oh, and btw, corn isn't even a good "food" for humans. So quit the "it takes food from people" crap. You'd die if all you had to eat was corn, not that human type of corn is used in ethanol production.
Why? because the starch level is too low, that's why they use a hybrid corn, which isn't even digestible to humans, for ethanol production. The left over protien is then processed for animal feed, as it always has been for the past 100 years.
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