Posted on 02/02/2007 4:34:02 PM PST by blam
Gas tanks could guzzle half of U.S. corn yields
Janet Raloff
In his Jan. 23 State of the Union Address, President Bush called for ramping up production of biofuels, such as ethanol from corn, to help cut U.S. dependency on foreign oil. A new report describes an ethanol-industry expansion already under way that is poised to boost corn-ethanol production by 160 percent within 2 years.
However, such an increase may carry a high cost, says the report's author, agricultural economist Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.
The 116 existing U.S. ethanol-fuel distilleries now use 53 million tons of corn. The 90 distilleries under or planned for construction would boost that demand to 139 million metric tons of corn, half of the projected 2008 U.S. harvest.
U.S. farmers produce 40 percent of the world's corn and export 55 million tons. Brown argues that any change in the crop's availability for food and feed will propel world grain prices—including those of wheat and rice—"to levels never seen before." He explains, "These three crops compete for much of the same land."
I buy quite a bit of corn to feed livestock and the prices have already gone up about 10% this year. Not only will tortillas be more expensive but so will your beef.
So, you want to compete with oil companies for: breakfast cerial, taco shells, cornbread, cooking oil, and a host of other things you now take for granted?
This is just plain the wrong way to go.
A quart cost $12 at home depot. It is not cheap.
Kewl! Then Gringo de Mexico can allow our "brothers to the South" to sell us corn.
"We are going to starve the Mexicans...;-)"
It's already happening. They were prostesting the cost of corn meal used for tortillas in Mexico city yesterday. The price has doubled I think.
A huge % of the country is set up to receive natural gas to heat their homes.
Because of the enviro-whackos a lot of the power plants are switching over to natural gas cuz it burns cleaner than coal.
What happens when we start running out of natural gas and have to replace all the natural gas pipes with more copper wire so that we can heat up everyone's house with electricity?
That worked well ... NOT ... in the past!
You can't eat wheat directly, either. It needs to be made into flour, then combined with other ingredients to make it nutritious.
People are "secondary consumers". We feed corn to the livestock in order to arrive at something we can consume. To upset this is just plain foolhardy. It would be far better to return to the horse and buggy.
"What's not to like?" Practically everything about ethanol as a viable alternative to petroleum. You, and other ethanol proponents, need to learn about 'unintended consequences'.
>>>Look folks, use logic here: corn is of limited nutritional value anyway, and you can prove it to yourself: Next meal, eat a can of corn. The whole can. Watch your bowel movements. You will see that corn again my FRiends. This is a universal law at work. <<<
What happens if you eat creamed corn, corn bread, grits, or tortillas, instead of whole kernel corn?
" propel world grain prices—including those of wheat and rice—"to levels never seen before." "
Probably a bit of an exaggeration. For most of history, food cost several times what it does today (relative to the average person's earnings).
Four people eating 1 Kg...
equals 8.8 ounces per person for the day. 3 ounces per meal. So what - do you think that is a lot? That is just a little more than 1/2 a can of vegetables (in 15 oz cans) for the entire day.
Perhaps not being familiar made it seem a lot, but if all they are mainly eating for three meals are 3 ounces of tortillas and something else, they are by no means pigging out. That is actually fairly meager rations... IMHO
My dad told me the car I bought while in HS was going to run on pi$$. He was wrong. After paying for the gas, there wasn't much money left over to buy the beer required for the process to be successful.
Now we are told to burn it directly.
Personally, I would like to replace 10% alcohol with 5% JP-4 jet fuel and see how that works for mileage.
America's farmers can (and will) easily increase production to meet the increased demand (speaking as an ex-farm boy whose family farm raised both corn and soybeans). Corn farmers would LOVE to plant "fence-row to fence-row" and bring idled acres back into production.
I thought sugar cane would grow about anywhere. We used to grow it in north Georgia {you can make liquor out of sorgum syrup and it is easier than buying large amounts of sugar}
I know they grow lots of sugar beets up north.
All they have to do is get some of the "good ol boys" from around here to show them how to make it!
The whole trick in this ethanol game is to begin operation of large scale retorts that USE cellulose ~ that is, cornstalks, switchgrass, and the like ~ not the starch found in the grain.
Ethanol is produced from the starch in corn. Animal feed and corn oil is produced from the protein and oil content of the corn kernel. There will be an abundance of animal feed and cooking oil.
Opponents fail to point this out.
Ass holes are in charge. Pardon me.....
Prayers to all of your children.
And with it we will see increased prices for land because more will be consumed by farming.
All because the government is engaged in socialism by taxing one product (good gas), giving subsidies for another (ethanol production) and artificially spiking demand with new ethanol mandates.
We have a much superior fuel within our own borders and seawaters that doesn't require taxes, subsidies, or mandates, and will not artificially inflate land and food prices. We just have no leaders with the guts to get the job done. Instead we have panderers.
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