Aaaaargh!!! I get so sick of the myopic politicians who can’t get this issue right. Farmers aren’t beholden to ethanol. What farmers want is added-value ag opportunities. They don’t care if it’s subsidized or not - they just want a market, something other than putting it on a barge and sending overseas.
They also aren’t beholden to growing corn, beans, or whatever. They just want to grow something profitable. They also aren’t particular about growing one crop, they’ll grow several if that makes them money. Profitable crops and a local market, with investment opportunities in added-value ag (i.e. coop) - that’s all they really want. With all the local jobs it would produce, we should all want that.
Here’s the way to frame the issue:
- We need to think bigger than ethanol and biodiesel.
- We should be looking at all added-value ag opportunities that stand on their own feet so that farmers aren’t subject to the whims of politicians every election cycle.
- We should be looking at taking as many things out of a particular crop that we can, and the higher the value the better.
- We should focus on research and developing technology, and a tax structure that promotes this and investment, especially farmer investment.
- We need to better vertically integrate our ag structure here in America to promote jobs and healthy farms.
There is a conservative way to approach ethanol and added-value ag and not tick off the farmer. It’s not that hard people.
Newt’s not the only one. The list of cornsnake oil salesmen includes Mitch Daniels, Tim Pawlenty, John Thune and yes, even conservative hero Mike Pence. But Pence has opted out of the 2012 race for the GOP presidential nomination. Although it’s no excuse, those four are at least from farm states that grow a lot of corn. Newt has even fewer excuses for being a Cornhuckster, hailing as he does from Georgia, where the big four agricultural products are poultry, peaches, pecans and peanuts — not corn.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/255950/cornhucksters-katrina-trinko?page=1
- JP
Some facts: One gas tank of ethanol requires enough corn to feed a family for a YEAR.
Ethanol is a net energy loss in production due to petroleum requirements for transport, fertilization, etc.
Ethanol requires tanker trucks as you cannot put it in a pipeline at all. Even more net loss.
FUNGus!
Gingrich is yesterday. He had his chance, and managed to get himself run out of the speakership, and saw the Republican revolution of 1994 turn into the money grab of the new millennium. He can’t recover by being a rino while calling himself a conservative.
Campaign slogan for 2012: No Newt is good Newt.
Newt’s a chubby little douche. He’s the smartest guy in the room. Just ask him. Bwahahhhaha. He needs to go sit on a couch with Nancy pelosi and figure out how global warming is going to affect him