Take a bow, environmentalists.

You make some good points in your post, but I'd leave these out of your arguments. There may be pipelines for oil, but it's still largely shipped by truck or boat, so we're not really doing anything different in that regard.

Also, farmers using diesel or gasoline to grow corn has nothing to do with ethanol. They were already using diesel and gas to farm it before ethanol and they would continue to use it if we stopped producing ethanol.

 

Yes, farmers will continue to use diesel and gasoline. But they won't be burning 1.3 gallons of it to produce 1 gallon of ethanol. Instead, they'll be burning it to grow corn that goes into the food supply and actually feeds people and livestock.

 

That's a different argument than what you had in your post.

It's not "making the problem worse." They're using the same diesel fuel and gasoline, just for a different final product.

Also, is there really a finite amount of corn that's going to lead food shortages and higher beef prices? If farmers can make money growing corn for ethanol and for food/livestock feed, won't they just grow more corn? I don't know the economics behind the answer to that question.

 

The corn used for ethanol is not the same sweet corn you boil or throw on the grill and eat.

 

Which is WAY more inefficient than ethanol. You know how many pounds of corn or grain it takes to make a pound of beef?

 

I didn't know that, but it doesn't really answer the question. Are farmers not growing the sweet corn so they can grow the "ethanol corn?" (what kind of corn are they using for ethanol production?) Is the ethanol corn the kind used in feed for livestock?

The food shortage predictions sound overblown to me, but again, I don't really know the economics behind why ethanol would have such a big impact. If there's one thing I don't think we fat Americans have to worry much about, it's food shortages.

 

In some cases, they are switching over to feed and/or ethanol corn.

If you set aside X number of acres for ethanol, then feed corn prices go up and that affects meat prices. It also affects lots of other foods, since high-fructose corn syrup is made from feed corn. So the cost of sodas can rise as well.

Add farm subsidies to the mix and it gets damned confusing.

 

When you burn 1.3 gallons of fuel to make 1 gallon of fuel available, you definitely are making the problem worse.

And certainly you know the answer to the "finite" amount of corn. Or maybe you went to public schools. [crossthread completed] In 2004, ethanol used 12% of corn grown. That number is around 20% not and will be 25% in a few years. And for what? To make an inferior product that costs more fuel to produce than it creates. And ethanol in your tank also burns less efficiently, so you gas mileage goes down.

There are nothing but downsides to ethanol. Then again, maybe all the Darwinists on this board don't mind the "less fit" starving to death. If we don't stop the ethanol debacle, the only people that will be able to afford to eat are farmers and ethanol plant owners.

 

It still takes land to grow it, land that could be used to grow edible food.