“NO “mature forests” have been cleared to produce ethanol in the US. “
The recently passed mandates to increase the proportional usage of biofuels including ethanol must mean that more agricultural land must go to growing for fuel; otherwise, there will indeed be a mandate for taking non-farm acreage and utilizing it for growing biofuel feedstock.
Could this be forest land? you betcha.
Your mistake is several fold. First, corn used for ethanol feed stock is still available for use as livestock feed (in fact, distillers dried grains are more easily digested than the unprocessed corn was to begin with). Second, there are approximately 32 million “conservation reserve” acres in the US which consists of arable land the federal government presently pays the owners not to farm. Third, corn yields are steadily increasing each year and will continue to do so. Fourth, there is a very transparent pricing system for corn, and other farm commodities, in the US. New crop corn prices in the US are lower than they were last year, indicating that corn buyers are having no trouble meeting their demands.
"Could this be forest land? you betcha."
Not. You obviously have NO clue as to how much agricultural land has been "fallowed" as farm productivity has gone up. The liklihood of clearing any forest land to grow biofuel in the US is nil. I grew up farming, and my brother farmed soybeans and corn up until about five years ago, so I "do" know what has gone on in the "ag biz".