Corn Biofuel
One last comment.
If everyone seems to know that corn biofuel costs more to produce than the equivalent energy available from gasoline, that it requires fertilizers that pollute water, that by displacing wheat production it is causing all food prices to increase, why is corn production being subsidized?
That’s a very good question for Archer Daniels Midland.
I doubt if they would give you much of an answer though. In fact they’d probably kick you out the front door.
In might be interesting to discover how much ADM receives in corn subsidies though. Several articles on the web suggest that it’s really “pigging” out.
Isn’t government of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation just wonderful.
I think part of the why-reason is that on day one, the press/magazines/TV/Internet media all thought that making ethanol from corn was one hell of a great idea as an alternative to foreign oil. Great story copy! — much interest! — it generated acceptance through massive PR; sold all of us on the concept. This came first, somewhat like how an idea for turning lead into gold sounds good at first. Any further corn-to-ethanol details involved were ignored. That’s my opinion of why and where it started. Later, Congress (those who now have a stake in this) plus lobbyists equal farm subsidies. And, perhaps, in the long term when the cost of fuel gets higher (maybe like $14 a gallon), corn as ethanol will become cost-effective, but I doubt that Congress will eliminate corn subsidies then; business as usual. Meanwhile….
If only it was a two-way instead of a one-way process, and one could turn ethanol back into food.
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Corn shortage? Let’s everybody in America go on a diet and make the unused, saved sugar into ethanol instead.
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