Do you believe the rise in food prices is caused by the use of Ethanol, as has been claimed?

Question

Ethanol has been touted as an Alternative Fuel, although some say there are emission problems connected to its use. Ethanol, in our country, is primarily made from corn, and corn and corn syrup are important ingredients in much of our food products. Thus, the production of Ethanol is blamed for the rising prices in food. However, most of us do not know a soul using Ethanol as fuel, and there is only one gas station in Michigan offering Ethanol as an alternative choice. So why would Ethanol take the blame for the prices going up in food?

Answer 1

Oil goes up everything goes up . Oil goes down nothing goes down http://www.first-molecule.com

Answer 2

since corn is in so many foods and part of animal feed and has been diverted to fuel production and since more crop land has been shifted to corn from other crops, yes, the price of food is affected....ethenol is NOT a good idea.  it makes food cost more, it pollutes more (apparently), and it may cost more in conventional fuel to produce it than it yields.  The profit in it is in the corn and the tax break!

Answer 3

AND AGAIN large scale ethanol is made primarily from silage, the stalks, the part that no one but cows eat. (search CELLULOSIC ETHANOL) any rising prices are due to speculation and rising oil prices which effect product transportation costs. if the united states does produce 35 billion gallons by 2017. WONDERFUL! less oil from the middle east. I don't know why clueless people write articles and fuel this hysteria. the kernel is less than 1% of a corn plant it's much more efficient to utalize the other 99%

Answer 4

Partly...maybe, but when you really take a hard look at what and who are behind the ethanol move it is again, our friends in BIG OIL.

Answer 5

Eethanol is used in most large metro areas. In Milwaukee we are forced to buy gas with a min. of 10% ethanol. Of course this will cause an increase in food prices. Corn is used as animal feed for our dairy industry(butter in approaching 5$ a lb) Corn is used as feed for beef cattle(ground beef is at over 3.25$ a lb) Restaurant prices are rising because of it. In Mexico the price of a tortia has increased over 400% in the last year. Millions of 3rd world people face starvation because of increased food costs. All of this is occuring because our elected representitives have become beholding to large ethanol manf. who write large checks to their campaign funds. Ethanol is not eco-friendly, does not decrease the use of oil(my auto looses 4 mpg using it). Of all the immoral policies used by the enviormental movement to destroy capitalisim this may well be the worst. Think this through, just what type of people would be cruel enough to burn food while millions starve on this planet, answer: anti-human eco-nuts

Answer 6

My grandmother has a farm in Iowa where they grow corn and soybeans and I asked her if she was happy that corn prices were up. She said that it didn't matter since seed, fertilizer and diesel fuel had all gone up in price too. If a barrel of oil is expensive than naturally diesel and fertilizer (it's made from petroleum by-products, mmm tasty) are going up in price too.

Retrofitting a refinery to produce ethanol is an expensive and dirty process.

Answer 7

I believe the rising food prices in the United States are primarily due to rising oil prices, because farm machinery and delivery trucks and trains use a lot of fuel to get that food to your local market. Doubling the price of oil will basically double the price of food in any country where all farming is highly mechanized.

Answer 8

It shouldn't be playing much of a role right now, but corn futures were up here in KC today also.  That could be the speculators as the gentleman said.  It also could be because a few weeks ago they were expecting a very low price, due to the bumper crop this year.  Those fears may have kept the price lower than it ought to have been.  That would be my interpretation.  There's also the various maneuverings by China to attempt to manipulate our grain market in their favor.  That's mostly been directed towards soybeans, but the market is complex, and I don't pretend to understand it all.  There can be tie-ins through the free trade agreements.  The soybean market was already much in our favor, due to crop failures in Europe and elsewhere in the world.

I think everybody sees that the ethanol industry will tend to lower the price eventually, but like you, I think it's way too soon to be seeing that directly at this time.

Did you look at the reviews on this article?

Answer 9

NOPE don't buy it! Also have done research and don't buy the hype on that if we use egas then we won't have enough food. I think it may be a combination of things, definitely the fact that gas has tripled recently has a lot to do with it, but because I wanna drive w/ my corn instead of eat it, don't believe it!

Answer 10

Some of the price increases, sure.

Note that much gasoline is 10% ethanol, so you do know many people using it.

And many more cars are produced each year that can burn 85% ethanol.  The number of gas stations that sell that is expanding daily, although it is focused in the Midwest.

A lot of fleet vehicles burn 85%, since they can be refueled at a central site.

Numbers:

Historic U.S. fuel Ethanol Production

Year Millions of Gallons

1980 175

1981 215

1982 350

1983 375

1984 430

1985 610

1986 710

1987 830

1988 845

1989 870

1990 900

1991 950

1992 1,100

1993 1,200

1994 1,350

1995 1,400

1996 1,100

1997 1,300

1998 1,400

1999 1,470

2000 1,630

2001 1,770

2002 2,130

2003 2,800

2004 3,400

2005 3,904

2006 4,855

Answer 11

because it is connected in the futures markets- people have been inflating the price of corn on speculation that ethanol will become the alternative fuel of the future even though that hasnt occured - also corn is used to feed majority of animals which we eat alos so the price went up on them as well -but honestly it is only because of the speculation that corn seems to be in high demand

Answer 12

The futures market. Unfortunately, you have only seen the beginning. If this is what they are going to rely on, they will have to clear billions of acres of land to just replace 5% of our oil comsumption. In turn because grain is not available for feed, the prices of food will go through the roof.

Answer 13

Yes, ethanol is definitely responsible for the rise in food prices.  

Read this article and then reevaluate your question.

http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/1...

Answer 14

Yes and no. I think that there is plenty of corn. Every year the US dumps excess corn and grain crops into the markets of developing countries under the guise of "aid". It does not aid their economies, but puts local farmers out of business, while limiting the supply in the U.S. and keeping prices higher there. There is no shortage of corn. Besides, the best part of the plant to use in ethanol production is the stalks anyhow - we don't eat the stalks.

   However, I think that all this hype about ethanol is causing some people to panic. On speculation that there will be a corn shortage, the prices of food are going up.

Answer 15

Food prices going up are caused by a number of market related things besides Ethanol production.  

The lack of a clear energy policy by the Federal Government is the biggest cause because the price of fuel has gone up for the farm tractors, the transport commodities to the processing plant and then the finished product to the grocery store.  

Immigration policy causes the farmers and processors to heap on more cost for the unknowns of the future labor market.

Answer 16

No. Rising gasoline and diesel prices have at least twice the effect on the price of food as corn.  Higher transportation costs result in higher food prices.  Oil is the number one cause of inflation and raises the price of all goods you buy at the store due to higher shipping costs.