Continuing the discussion from Ethanol As a Fuel Additive:
What is the concern with using corn and other food products to make fuel? My understanding it we grow far more then we need and this gives the farmer an alternative market.
- It’s effectively a net loss in terms of energy production when corn is used as the feedstock
- It’s a business that wouldn’t exist without .gov mandates and subsidies (thus the neverending love for ethanol production in the corn belt)
- It diverts corn from the food market to the fuel market, resulting in food shortages and price spikes abroad, contributing to unrest
Since the big agri-business ensure the government subsidizes their over production anyway, I don’t see why they would care one way or another. But then again, maybe the fuel prices are higher then what the government is will to spend to give food away to other countries.
I thought somebody solved this problem with Soylent Green.
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Ethanol production requires infrastructure, production costs, and subsidy well beyond mere corn growing.