USA Today.
Interesting article on scientist's concerns that increasing ethanol production will impact food production. Ethanol production is approaching 5 billion gallons this year.
Not sure I buy in too much, as corn used for ethanol is field corn, not the stuff humans eat. Like any other commodity, if demand for corn gets to the point where is effects the supply, the price will go up and farmers will produce more, or subsitutes will become attractive for certain areas of demand. Feed corn is used to feed livestock, but there are substitutes available, like sorghum. Ethanol by-products can also be used as feed, they just aren't as convenient for producers. Food is extremely cheap in this country, if I have to pay marginally more to eat for cheaper energy prices, that is a trade off I'm willing to explore.
Additionally, as ethanol technology improves, they get more ethanol per bushel of corn, and cellulosic ethanol (made from cornstalks, or switchgrass, etc) isn't that far off either, so in the long run, corn production may become a thing of the past for ethanol.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
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