The economics of land use are not debatable. Land used for growing corn for bio ethanol cannot be used to grow food crops, thus driving up the cost of food crops. The govt shouldn’t be mandating ethanol use in fuels, which they do.
mmm...
Are crops used to feed livestock “food crops”?
One-third of the content of corn used for ethanol is used as animal feed for livestock. That one-third is very high protein as protein is not used for making ethanol. Thus, ethanol actually subsidizes the production of protein.
Acres planted in corn in the USA had been going down for decades until the ethanol boom.
Do you really believe the world needs more starch and sugar for food?
Actually they are. The US only uses a little over 400 million acres, or 20% of its total arable land for crops. This is less than it was in the 1960s. Regarding corn, the yield per acre is around 160 bushels per acre. This is 6X what it was in 1950. The yield continues to improve at 1.9% per year. Some crop specialist believe this yield will double by 2030.
The improvements in yield are not just in corn either. Because of continuously improving yields on most crops, the US uses less arable land area for all crops now than ever before.
Is corn based fuel ethanol the most efficient alternative fuel? I don't think so. Should the government be forcing ethanol as an alternative to so called fossil fuels? No. In fact, there is much evidence to indicate that oil reserves are actually constantly produced by the earth. Of course we could find ourselves using it faster than the earth can produce it, but oil does not come from dead dinosaurs and plants.
Bottom line is the Govt. support of fuel ethanol is to generate more income for farmers. Bankrupt farmers can't grow the other crops that we need for food. What is debatable is whether or not the Govt. should be invovled in the name of food security. Regardless, we are certainly not starving ourselves by using corn to produce ethanol.
Fuel ethanol may not be the most economic solution as an alternative fuel, but we are not using up more arable land and no one is going to starve because of fuel ethanol. In fact, if we were not growing corn to produce fuel ethanol the US would be using less total acres for crops than it does now.