As a matter of fact, if the dairy farmer plants more corn than he needs, he can offset his milk production costs with the extra money he makes marketing his extra corn.
I don't think ethanol is "bad" at all, it is a good additive to gasoline, especially the crappy water laced fuel they produce now. It helps keeping that water from precipitating out, and prolongs the storage properties of gas, not to mention preventing your fuel tank from rusting out, which is a terrible problem with the fuel they make today, especially if you put it in an old pre-60's steel fuel tank.
It also burns cleaner, And increases the octane value.
It is NOT a fuel replacement however. 20% ethanol is about the limit to any benefit ethanol blending can provide, and because it replaces other types of fuel additives, it doesn't (or shouldn't) increase the cost of gasoline at those levels.
The increased corn prices shouldn't be cause for any whining either. It's about time farmers were actually paid above what it costs to grow a crop. They should remove the subsidies now.
“As far as I know, the cost of growing corn hasn’t gone up. Maybe the costs of fertilizer and fuel has.” LOL. You really don’t have a clue do you? There is no maybe about the costs of fuel and fertilizer going up. What do you suppose they plant, harvest, and fertilize the corn with? Horses?
BTW, you do know that different types of corn have different qualities, yes? Ever tried to eat feed corn? I once was sold feed corn ears at a store. I tried boiling it for two days (because I wasn’t paying fuel costs), and it still wasn’t edible.