corn for ethanol good or bad idea?

[MikePA]

Don't confuse mechanization with progress.

I'm not.

There were alternatives to "See the U S A in your Chevrolet" marketing of travel for the sake of travel.

Such as? Who would determine if my travel is just for the sake of travel?

HUGE areas of land are now paved over for "passenger cars only" and cannot be used for the transportation of goods (e.g. food) or services.

What areas are restricted to just passenger cars only and can't be used for transportation of goods?

 

[riptides]

Corn for Ethanol - Good
Corn for food - Good

Provided a balance can be maintained in supply and demand without outside influences.

So, it will never happen, in our markets and government.

Therefore, Corn for Ethanol - bad.

When was the last time you saw a sidewalk put in?
How about a rail line?
How about an airport?
A new shipyard?
How about a new road?

Think about it!

 

[N80]

Burning food to create a corrosive fuel that no one wants to use, while in the process using more fuel than you are creating and driving the price of corn and substitutes to stratospheric levels while doing nothing to reduce demand for oil and natural gas. And all of this achieved through a government subsidy that we pay for with our tax dollars. Brilliant!

This pretty much says it all if you ask me. I'd even have to wonder if there is going to be any real benefit in the corn growing regions. What good does it do for a small business in Nebraska if ADM takes home all the money?

As for our transportation system, and progress (whatever that is), well, its a mess. But there really isn't anywhere to point fingers unless you want to look at root causes. I suspect it started with FDR and the socialization of our country. Works projects to build roads. I may be wrong but I think it was probably the Ike administration that made a conscious decision to make interstate highways the primary mode of transportation in this country rather than rail. They had no way to know how big a mistake that was. And we have no way to know how much they were influenced by the automakers.

Bottom line is that our current form of transportation is as inefficient as the ICE's that run it.

I believe a robust rail system would be far better. In another post I begrudgingly cited western Europe as an example. Someone else suggested that western Europe is abandoning their rail systems and they are no longer effective. Well, that's about on par with my opinion of western Europe, but just because they can screw up a good thing doesn't mean its not a good thing. It may be way to late for us to resurrect a dying freight and passenger rail system....but it may not.

 

[tallyho8]

Bad idea. Corn is a significant part of our food chain. The use of corn for ethanol affects the prices for just about everything we eat except seafood. Joe

Seafood is affected also. Much of our seafood is farm raised. Many catfish farms are closing their ponds and plowing them to plant crops because of the high cost of fish feed.

 

[WTA]

I've thought it was a very bad idea right from the start. I knew using corn for fuel was just going to jack up prices on food and fuel and it did. It's not saving any energy at all either. To grow that corn takes water. Getting water to the fields takes electricity usually. Depending on how it's pumped. People down here in West Texas are even growing corn now. You should see their electric bills for those big pivots that run every day all day!

This is about the dumbest idea I've seen yet come out of this country. You just don't take a food crop meant for human consumption and try to make something else we NEED like fuel out of it. It's stupid.

I grow my own corn to eat now BTW. I'm also in the process of digging my own pond to grow catfish in. I can't hardly afford to buy either in the store anymore. All my extra money lately has been going to feed my truck and tractor.

 

[bigtiller]

Wow! Am I the only one who thinks it is a good thing? Are higher food prices in the U. S. strictly the result ethanol production? U. S. farmers produced 38% of the worlds corn last year and exported 68% of it to other countries.

 

[VA_Joe]

Seafood is affected also. Much of our seafood is farm raised. Many catfish farms are closing their ponds and plowing them to plant crops because of the high cost of fish feed.

Wow - although corn is displacing the planting of other crops and raising their prices - I never thought ethanol would have a similar effect on seafood (other than raising the demand for "non-farm" foods).

Joe

 

[kenmac]

Seafood is affected also. Much of our seafood is farm raised. Many catfish farms are closing their ponds and plowing them to plant crops because of the high cost of fish feed.

Same here.Cat fish farms & seafood farms gonng under. Some cattle farmers as well as chicken farmers are closing up shop because of high cost of corn feed

 

[Reg]

I'm not.


Such as? Who would determine if my travel is just for the sake of travel?


What areas are restricted to just passenger cars only and can't be used for transportation of goods?

You would know, I certainly know when I'm "Just driving for the sake of just driving."

Parkways, NY and CT, (probably other states too) are reserved for passenger cars, which does not include high occupancy passenger vehicles such as buses.
Fast lanes.
HOV lanes.
In many cases another dividing lane between HOV and regular lane that can't be used by any traffic, but is paved.

 

[RobJ]

Seafood is affected also. Much of our seafood is farm raised. Many catfish farms are closing their ponds and plowing them to plant crops because of the high cost of fish feed.

I never liked catfish from the sea! :d

But I agree with the na-sayers. Doesn't it take something like 2 gallons of bio to produce 3 gallons of ethnol? And the price of everything else goes up.

Plus I don't know if everyone knows about growing corn/feed corn. It's a short crop, bugs not to bad on it. But it does need one key thing...water.