Why feed people when you
can make money?

Yes, growing corn crops for ethanol was a decision made by ex-President Bush and was a blunder then; one that is getting worse today. This will be soon discovered when you shop for food or when out of work, and the food banks are now empty. Ha, food stamps? Well… You already went through those? Brace yourself for round two.

Why? The greater demand for corn and the resulting higher animal feed costs have sent meat prices soaring. Corn used as an ingredient in most foods means higher costs of all foods in general for you and me. There’s more, there’s the extermination of livestock that can no longer be fed due to the high prices of feed. So? Well, the corn-fuel farmers are primed for another step up in production, mandated by law.

Any plans to use cellulosic sources such as switchgrass and wood chips to use in the conversion to ethanol are stuck in the planning stage (nowhere). It’s corn, corn, corn. And now more corn! The major obstacle to using anything other than corn is Republican Sen. Charles Grassley — who represents Iowa, where corn is now king.

Existing ethanol production facilities are of course “grandfathered” thanks to Bush and are here to stay. The amount of ethanol from corn farmers that are required to grow has incremental increases. That means, just like last year, higher prices for corn, less corn grown for food. And — the above repeated — higher food prices for groceries and meats. It’s the farmers reward for growing corn for fuel, certainly not for food. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the corn farmers get a government subsidy to grow corn. For real.

However, there is a new aspect to America’s corn-to-fuel sage: Global warming and the climate problems with corn-based ethanol.

The Obama administration on Tuesday (May 5, 2009) said its preliminary assessment of ethanol — as made today — found that it wouldn’t meet Congress’ requirement of emitting 20 percent less greenhouse gas than gasoline. But, it also touted developing sources and promised a final decision would be made only after a science-based review.

Leave it to Congress who is working diligently for farm interests to change the formula to determine this decision. Accounting tricks? Why not? Will ethanol usage increase or slow down global warming? Depends on which scientists one asks, doesn’t it? And now “the EPA has invited public comment on the first national policy to limit greenhouse gas emissions on a “life-cycle” basis that includes land use.” Good Gawk! I don’t believe it, but it’s true. Why doesn’t the EPA just ask my barber?

Meanwhile, the ethanol people asked the EPA last month to allow them to increase the blend from 10 percent to 15 percent. boosting the ethanol demand to six billion gallons a year. I ask, for whose pocketbook? Not yours.

How does it really work? The price for a gallon of oil is a record low? Does this mean the price for you at the pump will come now? Oh, the refineries are cutting back on production to keep the price of gasoline high, keep it at its max profit-making level. Sure. What will ethanol role be? It will continue as-is. Ask yourself, who in their right mind would burn food to drive to the grocery store?

If you would like to find the source of this food-to-ehanol scam, read my post in www.blog4brains called Bush’s Ethanol Blunder.

One of the comments to that post that’s interesting is from President Clinton. I repeat it here:

In an October 23rd 2008 AP news article by Charles J. Hanley where President Clinton gave a talk at a high-level event marking Oct. 16’s World Food Day and (Clinton) said ‘We all blew it on global food, including me.’”

“‘Clinton criticized,’ reports AP writer Mr. Hanley, ‘the heavy U.S. reliance on corn to produce ethanol, which increased demand for the crop and helped drive up grain prices worldwide.’”

“‘If we’re going to do biofuels, we ought to look at the more efficient kind,’ he (Clinton) said, referring, for example, to the jatropha shrub, a nonfood source that grows on land not suitable for grain.

The U.N. General Assembly president, Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua, agreed, speaking of the “madness of converting crops into fuel” for cars.’”

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