Let them eat cake”

The 20% reduction in America’s use of gasoline by 2017 is not an option. The proposal to make up that short fall, for the most part with corn ethanol, is an absurdity.

In 2000, roughly 6 % of the U.S. corn harvest was used in the production of 1.6 billion gallons (not barrels, which are 42 gallons). In 2006, the U.S. produced 5 billion gallons, which took 20% of the U.S. corn harvest.

Now corn, along with wheat, is at the base of the American diet, and its price has risen nearly 100% in the past 56 weeks. Americans spend better than 15% of their income on food, and 8 % on energy. Me thinks this to be vaguely important, considering the President is proposing a 7 to 10 fold increase in the amount of ethanol to be produced from corn (10% from switch grass and the like) in the next 10 years. To do so, the ethanol producers would consume the entire 2006 U.S. corn crop.

Only trouble is, corn goes into a lot more than your morning cereal. Corn is the primary feed stock for poultry, hogs, and the finishing feed for beef. Aside from meat, poultry, and eggs, the vast majority of the processed foods American’s consume contain corn.

Inflation is about to rear its ugly head.

Greg Jeffers


Mentatt (at) yahoo (dot) com