Posted on 10/31/2012 9:53:29 PM PDT by neverdem
We don’t burn food. We burn starch from corn. Proteins(which is food) are returned to the market.
I’m not a proponent of subsidies, but what all the anti-ethanol people miss is that:
The corn being used is not human food, it’s animal feedstock.
Done right, the dried distiller’s grains (DDS) or wet distiller’s grains (WDS) are returned as livestock feed, minus the starches and sugars, providing a high-protein feedlot component.
There are symbiotic relationships with the distillers where corn and stover is processed, DDS and WDS are returned to feedlots, manure is recycled to generate methane to fire the plant and then spent manure is returned to cornfield or pastures.
pretty damn green closed-loop recycling if you ask me. Let it compete, the market will tell the tale. Don’t listen to just the city version.
Thank you for adding some sanity to what always turns into a silly discussion of this issue on FR.
Those who don’t understand this, go read up on DDGS. One plant a few miles down the road from me converts the residual corn protein into a high-value pig feed that is now mostly exported — to CHINA — where pork is the #1 meat.
There IS one problem with this industry and that is the RFS, which is how the gov’t creates artificial demand by mandating the use of certain fuels. Get the gov’t nose out of private business, let the market decide and everyone will be better off. Because of gov’t mandates for biodiesel, millions of dollars was invested in plants that are now idle, because there is no sustainable, affordable feedstock that is competitive with petrodiesel. These plants were built (and the capital wasted) because some bureaucrat, rather than market forces, decided how much biodiesel should be used every year. It’s no different than Big Bird and Planned Parenthood - get the gov’t of things they have no business being involved with.
thats the only reason to that feed prices have doubled, fuel prices have doubled, and land devoted to corn has doubled locally...
not to mention the end use cost of beef and the diminished life of all the vehicles/equipment that are rotting from the inside due to watered fuel...
there is no doubt that ethanol is good economically
for the people of the US.
for people who around the world who earn 2 dollars a day,
fuel ethanol in the US is not a good deal.
who should I have concern for?
Why are the Democrats and some Republicans in Congress starving to death the worlds poorest people so their buddies in the ethanol corporate business can line their pockets with money?
There is no doubt that ethanol is good economically for some people in the US. It's called crony capitalism. Subsidies distort free markets.
for people who around the world who earn 2 dollars a day, fuel ethanol in the US is not a good deal.
Hungry people tend to be problematic, e.g. the Arab Spring in Egypt.
who should I have concern for?
I usually go with family and friends first, then my country.
I’ll probably hate myself for asking, but just which HUGE siubsidies are you referring to?
Well, 'cept for double cheezburgers, fries, vanilla shakes, etc ;-)
The subsidy died. Praise God.
But, unfortunately, the mandate didn't. Indeed, the EPA wants to boost the ethanol mandate from 10% to 15%.
So, you'll still get your ration of ethanol. You just have to pay more for it at the pump.
First-”I’m not a proponent of subsidies”
Second- What would you grow in that field? Sweet Corn? Turnips? Oh yeah, “food for people”.
The market place apparently wants meat, and has plenty of sweetcorn and turnips.
No farmer I know is receiving any subsidies to grow grains at the current price structure; LCP, countercyclical payments, etc. There is an ethanol subsidy for fuel producers- it needs to go away.
Common sense is somethings farmers tend to exercise when they put their pencil to the paper and decide whether to plant feed corn or turnips.
Good, eliminate the mandate and let the market decide. A mandate that forces unionism is just as bad as a mandate that forces you to use one product over the other. There are few justifiable government mandates. It’s simply crony capitalism.
You’re gonna confuse’m with the truth
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