John Birch Society, WI
11-27-06
Scientist Worries that Ethanol Conversion Might Eat into Food Production
By Ed Hiserodt
A Nebraska Institute scientist urges more research into the relation between
ethanol production and use of corn for human and animal food. The concern is
that price of food will rise if ethanol industry expands at current projections.
Coming off the heels of a yearly celebration in which most Americans live in such
prosperous times that they can actually gorge themselves at will, and later regret
eating too much, this news item from several days ago still is timely enough to
discuss.
Nebraska Center for Energy Sciences Director Kenneth G. Cassman makes a
valid point: If the rush to ethanol continues there will be less corn available for
human consumption and livestock feed leading to higher prices. Indeed his
colleague at Iowa State University, Robert Wisner, ponders whether Iowa will
soon become a corn importer. The numbers are revealing.
There are about 75 million acres currently under corn cultivation—twice that of
any other crop. At 2.8 gallons of ethanol per bushel of corn and 162 bushels per
acre, about 750 million acres of corn would be required to replace the BTU
content of gasoline and diesel fuel used in the United States. One major problem
is that only 19% of the country is arable—some 430 million acres. So how do you
grow 750 million acres of corn for ethanol production on 430 million acres of
arable land? And that's giving no acreage to such "minor" crops as wheat, oats,
cotton, soybeans and corn used for foodstuffs.
In a free market the law of supply and demand would solve this problem
automatically with the mechanism of price. But when government enters the
market with subsidies, tax incentives, and other inducements to promote a
product or service, the market is disrupted and misallocation of resources
becomes the norm.
Sadly the question of ethanol's place in the market has become a political one
with proponents making such statements as "Ethanol production is a co-product
of corn processing and therefore should only be charged with the energy that
was used to turn it into ethanol."
Apparently corn is like crab grass and just magically appears without any
human effort.