After further reading (from sources you did not feel compelled to offer in evidence) I concede that corn-oil CAN BE (though it is not always) obtained from the “dry” residue - post-production - after ethanol is created.
However,
From what I have seen, most current post-ethanol-production conversion processes to get the corn oil out of the dry-mill residue, are doing so for the production of corn oil for the bio-diesel market, and not for the general corn-oil market; due to other chemical residues left in the dry-mill residue by the ethanol process that make the extracted corn oil unfit for human consumption. I have read of only one plant that is trying to engineer the improvements needed to the end product.
It seems it is still a process that diverts source material from the supply-side of food production to energy production, with concurrent cost shifts; because, even when the corn oil IS extracted after ethanol production, it remains millions of acres of corn fields grown primarily for energy, instead of completely for food. Corn for ethanol has, and will continue, to affect our food prices, as will the manufacture of most “bio_fuels”, because of the changing demands they make on resources, in competition with food production. In fact the margins on corn ethanol - due to subsidies - have affected the cost of food production beyond the corn food-chain, as farmers shifted from other products to corn, because of the ethanol induced demand (reducing production and raising market prices of the crops they shifted from).
The entire process involving ethanol and most “bio fuels” is a political game and has nothing to do with either a better environment or long-term energy needs. It’s all about “how can I cash in on this political agenda to get my business plan subsidized” and “how can I create a legal mandate for, and provide, a bunch of subsidies to “new” businesses, so they will become my next major campaign finance backers”. On the giving and receiving end, it’s all about using the taxpayers (someone else’s money) to fund your profits, political and financial.
The supply of corn is more elastic than you give it credit for. While the US production of ethanol will have increased from about 9 Billion gallons in 2008 to 13 Billion gallons this year, the market price of corn has dropped dramatically in the same period.
I didn't really intend to hijack the thread, by the way. It's just that with socialized rapeseed production floundering and the Gulf awash in crude oil, midwestern farmers are still quietly plugging away.