Milk: Whole/Skim/E85?
A byproduct of the ethanol craze is an increase in corn prices. Okay, no shocker. Well, there are a lot of things that depend on the price of corn. A whole lot. In fact there are books and movies about the predominance of corn in our country. One such book is called the Omnivore's Dilemma and you can check it out here. The movie is called King Corn and you can check out Plenty Magazine's interview here.
What's all of this mean for auto enthusiasts? Well, it's my opinion that corn based ethanol is the wrong path for this country. We're barely into it, and it's already having a ripple effect. The waves are only going to get bigger.
I'm all for alternative fuels, but I believe that there are better ways for us to get ethanol such as agricultural and forest residues, grasses, and fast-growing trees. I'd personally like to nominate switchgrass: it requires minimal irrigation, fertilizer, or herbicides but yields 2-3 times more ethanol per acre than corn does.
In the short term, as long as we "live green, go yellow" get ready to pay $ for all of your favorite products!
Thursday, May 03, 2007
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Since I'm from Iowa, and one of our biggest (if not the biggest) products is corn, I have mixed feelings about ethanol. On one hand, it has helped my state out tremendously by upping the price of corn and helping out farmers. Also, it has brought jobs to the state in the form of several people opening ethanol refineries here. Also, it has helped farming to become a job that can be profitable, thus helping younger people get into farming rather than leaving farming (and the state) to pursue other types of employment. That helps us keep our agricultural heritage.
On the other hand, another of our big products is livestock, and the farmers who produce livestock are having the prices for their feed go up while the price for livestock has not increased at the same pace.
We do need to look for other means as well as corn, but for the foreseeable future, I think corn based ethanol is here to stay.
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