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UN Calls US Ethanol Evil Corn

Evil Corn? They don't put it that way, but they HAVE called for an immediate suspension of government-mandated US ethanol production, saying that this is creating a worldwide food shortage. Corn (the main ingredient in ethanol) is not only a staple food in much of the world, it is also fed to livestock. When we had plenty of corn (which is subsidized--and also stored--with our tax money), we wanted to turn it into biofuel, but now that we're facing a corn shortage due to drought, it's time to use something more efficient to make biofuel.

In the August 10th edition of the Financial Times, Javier Blas and Gregory Meyer explain that "the US is poised to divert around 40% of its corn into ethanol because of (a) Congress-enacted mandate." They quote José Graziano da Silva, director-general of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, as saying, "An immediate, temporary suspension of that (ethanol) mandate would give some respite to the market and allow more of the crop to be channeled towards food and feed uses."

US refiners need BILLIONS of gallons of ethanol to meet environmental specifications for biofuel, and the suspension of the mandate (which is not likely to go through in the current deadlocked Congress) could cause oil prices to rise, making the recession worse. Farm states such as Iowa, which is a swing state in the upcoming election, benefit from higher corn prices, while other swing states, such as livestock-raising Texas, are helped by lower corn prices.

It seems like Congress can't manage to do ANYTHING in an election year like this one, but it HAS acted on this before: In 2008, the EPA denied a waiver request from Texas.

The writers quote Graziano da Silva as saying that, "with world prices of cereals rising, the competition between the food, feed and fuel sectors for crops is likely to intensify." In other words, this is just the beginning.


Its simple , burning what could be used to feed the starving is just wrong.

Stop feeding/raising livestock that must eat a huge amount of corn to produce a single pound of meat and give the corn directly to the world's starving. It would help for a while but the Elephant In The Room is - there are just too many people.

According to David Blume, author of Alcohol Can Be a Gas -- corn is not the most efficient plant with which to make alcohol. In fact, you can buy your own highly efficient still and make your own alcohol which can be used as fuel from grass clippings! Please check out this guy's site -- he's pretty intense -- but the facts don't lie. Originally, cars ran on alcohol. Evidently, Rockefeller wanted people to buy petrol, which people didnt like all that much because it dirtied the air and gunked up their car engines . Coincidently, he evidently seeded (monetarily) the prohibition movement which targeted alcohol production. The early Model T even had a switch so one could go between alcohol and petrol. Cars made after 1983 evidently can run on a 50/50 mixture of gasoline and alcohol without damage. The "fix" is an adjustment or addition to the computer on your car to regulate the octane balance (alcohol required more oxygen). With the fix -- we can run our cars on 100% alcohol. If more people cld just be aware of this and make some easy changes -- I bet we could cut our dependence on foreign oil in half within a year or two -- and have a cleaner world and stop removing the layer of oil that allows for smooth passage of crust over the mantle. Don't take my word for it -- its not hard to check it out. Here's a few links to get started. YouTube has C2C shows as well.

US corn crop mostly goes to feed cattle here and abroad. Its mostly GMO corn -- and evidently we have enough of it (now -- not including this year's harvest or lack thereof) to last at least a year. I think turning the GMO crops into alcohol wld be a great way to get rid of them (and then not plant any more).

Cldnt delete my repeater post ... so I edited it to this.

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