corn for ethanol good or bad idea?

[N80]

Your worried about a 1.2% rise in food cost?

No. It would have very little effect on me in regard to what gets to the table. But I don't know how many times I've pointed this out, but increases in expenses have to be made up for somewhere. So if the average family with an average income faces even an isolated increase in expenses, it has to be accounted for somehow. They can work more to increase income, they can become more dependent on credit or they can spend less elsewhere. None of these options is without an impact on the economy.

And it is a bit naive to think that this 1.2% figure (if you believe it at all) exists in a vacuum. It comes along with all the other incremental increases in expenses that taken alone can look trivial. They obviously add up and this one comes on top of other percentage increases in food costs plus the much larger increase in energy costs. And that 1.2% comes as a result of ineffective attempts to alleviate the energy cost increase! That's adding insult to injury.

Stop eating out and eat at home.

I could not agree more. The vast majority of restaurant food and all fast food tastes bad, is expensive and is bad for you. I don't mind dropping some cash for a truly good meal at a good place but otherwise I eat out only under duress.

 

[zzvyb6]

You guys with all your Asian and European 'farm' stuff... What the **** else do we have to sell back to them? Too bad if the price of corn goes up. The farmers have been getting screwed for so long they think its normal. Sure, all the storage and post-processors have been making big money, now they will take a loss. Best thing would be to have the corn farmer and the silage producers put an ethanol plant right on the farmstead.

Meanwhile, you're sipping your $8.00 a gallon bottled water and only paying $2.49 a gallon for milk. Too bad if the billions of starving Asians and Africans and Indians have to pay a bit more. Maybe they'll have to resort to birth control to ease their burden. Worked for us, now its their turn. Anyways, ethanol is just the start on non-oil based fuel. Next will be hybrid-2 vehicles (electric drive, ICE generator), then cut the umbilical to the ICE. Around here, many homeowners are beginning to plant 5 acres of carn for heat and possible fuel use. If you miss your cornflakes or corn fed beef or bacon, too freakking bad. If you look around and fail to notice all the overweight slugs out there at the malls, you're gonna need new glasses, too.

 

[Travelover]

Having said this, I do believe there is promise in other types of biofuels. Brazil seems to have got it right with sugarcane...

Chris

I've read that that there has been increased destruction of the Brazilian rain forest in an effort to clear more land for growing biofuels. This is bad for the environment because it releases CO2 when burned, plus the burned trees no longer absorb CO2, as they did when living. And of course destroying the rain forest causes lots of other issues from displacement of indigenous people to destruction of biodiversity.

Which is not to say that biofuels are a totally bad idea, just that there are side effects that need to be monitored and tweaked.

 

[MikePA]

Now that the name calling and jingoism has started, time to close the thread.