Andrew P. Morriss: Ethanol scam driving up food*prices

[daveman]

Andrew P. Morriss: Ethanol scam driving up food*prices

Read more from this Tulsa World article at Andrew P. Morriss: Ethanol scam driving up food prices | Tulsa World

The mandate for corn-based ethanol also drives up food prices. Meeting the 2015 mandate will require using 5.3 billion bushels of corn. As a result of the forced conversion of corn to ethanol, any food containing corn - including pork, beef and ice cream - costs more.

The National Council of Chain Restaurants estimates the ethanol mandate costs each of its members $18,000 per year. An inconvenience for wealthy people, rising corn prices are disastrous for the poor, at home and abroad. A Tufts University study estimated that Mexicans paid $1.5 billion more for food from 2006 to 2011.

During 2012's drought, U.S. hog farmers imported corn from Brazil while U.S. corn was being made into ethanol. This is even more ridiculous than it sounds as Brazil is an efficient producer of sugar-cane based ethanol. Because of trade barriers designed to protect the U.S. ethanol industry, farmers were forced to import Brazilian corn instead of Brazilian ethanol.​

 

[daveman]

At best, ethanol breaks even in the energy balance. Some studies have found that it takes 6 times more energy to produce than it provides.

And let's not forget the vast dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico attributed to ethanol.

No one truly concerned about the environment can support ethanol mandates.

 

[SSDD]

Like they couldn't see that buring our food might drive up food prices and most hurt those who can least afford it.

 

[waltky]

People gonna start starvin' in India again if food prices don't come down...

Rising Food Prices Harm India’s Poor, Middle Class
February 20, 2013 — Major trade unions in India have called a nationwide strike beginning Wednesday to protest increased fuel costs, inflation and what they say are the government’s failed economic policies. Retail inflation, which hit nearly 11 percent in January, is affecting the country’s poor and middle class.

It’s 5 p.m. and customers are crowding this vegetable market in the northern Indian city of Lucknow. Annamma Rajput listens closely to the vendors and then haggles to bring prices down. She focuses on the onion - an Indian staple used in nearly every dish - whose price has jumped dramatically in recent months. “Onion was 10 rupees, 15 rupees a kg [kilogram], now it is 20, 40 something like that. It’s very expensive for the common people,” said Rajput.

And for the school coordinator, spending more on produce, means having less to spend on other household goods. "It is so expensive. What will we do for our other things also? We have got children, we have to bring them up - vegetables are not the basic thing for the children, isn’t it?” she asked. India’s consumer price inflation rose to 10.79 percent in January and government figures show the price of vegetables increased by 26 percent compared to December of last year. At the Lucknow market, retired geology department director S.F. Farooqui said the government’s recent increase in fuel prices is partly to blame. “As far as vegetables are concerned, it is the impact of only oil. When oil goes up, that means the transportation cost increases,” said Farooqui.

But economists such as D.H. Pai Panandikar say the main reasons for stubbornly high food inflation are neither the high cost of transport, nor - as in the case of the onion - last year’s drought in parts of the country. He said it's a simple issue of supply and demand. “With the improvement in incomes, people are shifting their consumption patterns from food grains to fruits, vegetables, meat, milk and so on,” said Panandikar. Panandikar said the government can take certain steps, though, to increase supply and ease prices. “For instance, the government can give loans at cheaper rates of interest for dairies so they can develop really fast, one thing they can do. The second thing is to give vegetable growers or fruit growers better seeds with high productivity,” said Panandikar.

Meantime, analysts say food inflation not only is hurting people’s wallets; it has a broader effect on the economy. More money spent on food means less to spend on clothes and other goods. And low consumer demand is causing India’s industrial production to continue shrinking, contributing to a gross domestic product that is expected to drop to 5 percent for the fiscal year ending in March - the lowest GDP in a decade.

Source

 

[Star]

At best, ethanol breaks even in the energy balance. Some studies have found that it takes 6 times more energy to produce than it provides.

And let's not forget the vast dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico attributed to ethanol.

No one truly concerned about the environment can support ethanol mandates.

Then:
Who owns Bob Dole?


Now:
Archer Daniels Midland: Recipients

Money to Congress: 2012 Cycle
Dems:

$83,600
Repubs:

$147,001
Others:

$0
Incumbents:

$220,201
Non-Incumbents:

$10,400

.

 

[Mr. H.]

$7 corn and $14 beans. Must be nice livin' the life of the American farmer these days. They are practically given carte blanche when it comes to raping the environment, paid for not growing crops, granted floor prices and loan supports, and have an insurance program to cover their asses. Exporting millions of metric tons of grains each year while we pay record prices at the grocery store.

But as we all know... on the 8th day... God made a Farmer.

 

[Mad Scientist]

First, corn subsidies lowers the price of corn so that even Mexican Farmers can't compete and have to come up here to work. Then mandating Ethanol Fuel use jacks the price up so that people starve.

Thank's Gov't!