Using corn as a feedstock for ethanol is not the most efficient usage of surplus farmland.
But until some better fuel technologies and farming techniques come along, it is a good start.
And I really don't give a rip about Fidel's point of view. I grew up in Miami, and have a lot of Cuban friends. Screw him.
I have to laugh at this crap. Lets take a look at some plain provable facts again.
At one time a barrel of oil was worth 2-3 bushels of grain. the ratio of the price of grain to oil has plummeted in the last 30 years. But then something happened. There came about discussion about using American grown corn as the basis for the alcohol that goes in to ethanol. The price of corn has doubled in the last year and is still on the rise. The ratio of corn to oil is changing in a direction that is more favorable for us and is still headed up. If this program goes into production it will do two things. It will drop our level of oil imports and it will make food more expensive for those countries that are oil rich bu food poor. Our farmers will be bringing more money back into our country. The shift is not huge at this point in time but it is definable by looking at the numbers.
Those folks that can't feed their own people are as hooked on cheap grain from the US as we used to be on their cheap oil. Right now, Castro has neither oil or food in excess. He has to import both. Sorry old man but that is the way socialism crumbles.