People don't eat feed corn....livestock do. And what the Midwest produces for ethanol production is feed corn.
Sweetcorn is grown by farmers that supply that market. "Roasting ears" usually have a low enough price, like 5 for a buck.
The fermentation process not only produces alcohol, it also releases nutrients in the remaining mash, a better animal feed than the original corn.
The mash is then dried and sold as a premium feed....giving at least two products from the very same corn crop.
Lowering animal feed prices = lower beef, pork prices at the market
Pork and chicken are typically cheap. Currently beef is expensive due to alleged the Dempanic fear in slaughter houses, and supply chain issues.
Very well put. And the truth that anti-ethanol people refuse to hear is that without ethanol there would be a huge oversupply of field corn and the price would plummet. Distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) or “mash” as you call it, is an excellent source of protein and energy supplement that is blended with other ingredients to make more nutritious feed than raw corn that is tailored to the needs of the animal and other factors.
Farmers used to say the best way to get more money for your corn is to run it through a cow. Beef and dairy products are more value-added thus more profitable. Now they add, “or run it through an ethanol plant”.
China is the largest consumer of pork (or was til the Asian Swine flu wiped out half or more of their livestock) and pork finishing is most efficient with tailor-made feed to accelerate the time to market. DDGS is used for that purpose so in fact it is “feeding the world”, much of which is exported so it also improves our balance of trade.
Make American. Buy American.