corn ethanol

A combination of bad weather and the rising use of ethanol as fuel, combined with higher transportation costs and other economic factors, have caused the costs of corn to skyrocket. Corn ethanol programs must be stopped now, and the competition between food and fuel must be ended.

I'm the first to admit that the current round of ethanol is not perfect. The rising demand for ethanol has put more land under cultivation, increased water shortages, and increased fertilizer and pesticide use. For all that, corn isn't really a great way to create ethanol, only producing 1.3 units of energy for every 1 unit put into its creation.

However, it is NOT responsible for the 40% increase in food prices over the last few years. It might seem like an easy target, but let's start with some logic, and then move into the solid figures.

With gas prices rising to record highs, individuals are looking for ways to cut that cost and one company are ready to give it to them. A California based company, E-Fuel Corporation has just announced their newest product, a do-it-yourself home ethanol refinery.

Richard Lobb, Coalition for Balanced Food and Fuel Policy, is interviewed about a study that finds federal ethanol subsidies are contributing to rising food prices.

Petrosun's most recent press release announced the actual commencement of operations of the first algae-to-biofuel plant. This comes as a bit of a surprise, but a very nice one considering the huge environmental benefits of microalgae biofuel over typical corn, soy and sunflower biofuels. Here are just some of the facts...

Girstmill discusses the severe shortcomings of the Bush Administration's corn ethanol program, which has cost taxpayers huge amounts but has made no impact on oil or gas prices. It has, however, increased food prices, pollution and poor agricultural practices. For related articles, see http://greenchemistry.wordpress.com/.

Ethanol demand outgrows corn- there is no way that corn ethanol will have any significant effect on our dependence on foreign oil, but the Bush administration program is fully capable of using up all available corn, regardless of its importance as food. In fact, we are getting to that point very quickly, and may be there now.

Increase In Ethanol Production From Corn Could Significantly Harm Water Quality- a description of damage expected to water from increased runoff of agricultural chemicals and increased water use, both associated with corn ethanol.

How Corn Ethanol Could Pollute the Bay- the Washington post reports on pollution from corn ethanol causing environmental problems, or expected to do so.

Treehugger.com is an excellent site for environmental issues. In this case, the Treehugger article gives a good introduction to ethanol as fuel, and discusses the differences between corn ethanol (US) and ethanol derived from sugar cane (as in Brazil). Note that the best form of ethanol production IMHO, from cellulose and other biomass, is not quite ready for prime time and needs more R and D. This is a review of the Treehugger article with many other references and links.

One of a series of articles on this site that discuss biofuels, when they make sense and when they don't.