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Originally Posted by Scandia
I hope this does not happen while I am still alive.
I hope they can make cars that do run on ethanol produced from corn SOON.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ZTAngel
That would be just as bad. Part of the reason for the skyrocket in food prices is because a lot of the corn that farmers produce is being used towards gas. Plus, I remember reading somewhere that it's just as "unclean" in terms of the environment as fossil fuels.
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Ethanol itself as a biorenewable fuel is definitely worth the research and development that's going into it and could be what we need to decrease our dependence on oil. Corn ethanol is just a placeholder right now until they can find a more efficient way, especially from cellulosic waste.
I live in Iowa. I see first hand the positive effects that the corn ethanol boom has had in our state. But I don't think it's the be-all, end-all of ethanol. Farmers and refinery plant owners both know the effects producing corn ethanol has on the land and the environment. It's not perfect, but it's something at least for now.
While the increase in price for corn, and increase for use in ethanol, has had an impact on food prices, it is not the only reason. It's all interconnected. High corn prices = more acres planted in corn. More acres planted in corn = fewer acres planted in other crops. Fewer acres planted in other crops = higher prices for those crops = higher prices for items that use that crop at the grocery store. But if the prices of other crops get to be high enough to be profitable for that farmer, he might switch back to that crop that might be a better fit for his location and growing season. Food prices in the US have been artificially low for a number of years. While the increase may be a shock to us, they're actually more in-line with other countries around the world. Plus, the corn used for ethanol is field corn - meant for livestock and processing. It's not like sweet corn that we're used to eating.
As far as being as "unclean," the ethanol itself is not - it actually helps reduce certain emissions created by gasoline engines. What those opponents are usually talking about is the emissions produced by the agricultural machinery needed to plant, grow and harvest the corn and also by the trucks needed to ship the corn to the processing plant and the finished fuel to fuel pumps - which isn't necessarily true if the farmers use biodiesel (another renewable biofuel made from soybeans).
Brazil has had a lot of success with ethanol. Granted, theirs is largely produced from sugarcane, which is more efficient than corn, but impossible to grow on a large scale in the US.
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I drive a diesel Jeep. Diesel fuel is currently $4.27/gal. We can't take public transportation, I can't walk to work because I'm the one who has to take my son to daycare, I can't carpool with my husband because we work on opposite sides of the city. We don't take as many trips back to see our parents as we did and we won't take any sort of vacation this summer. We do get 25-28 mpg, so a $75 tank of fuel can last two weeks or more of just normal driving around.
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