Why is everybody so interested in using corn for fuel, if there is a food shortage.?

Question

Why is everybody so interested in using corn for fuel, if there is a food shortage.?

Answer 1

There isn't a food shortage. The problem is in distribution of food...it is expensive and difficult. We have enough food in America alone to feed everyone in the world.

Answer 2

The answer is that "everybody" isn't interested.  As noted above, this country has more than enough corn.  There is no food shortage in America...just a lack of profit in giving the food we'd otherwise throw away to contries that do have problems keeping their people fed.  Cynical?  Definitely.  Also sadly true.

Corn is cheap to make and cheap to buy, which is the angle used to sell the ethanol idea to lawmakers and to the public.  Fuel isn't made from fresh corn, (which contains lots of useless-for-burning water,) it's made from dry corn that can sit around for years and -was- once less valuable than the fresh stuff.

What they leave in the small print on the back of page 487 is how expensive and inefficient it is to produce fuel from corn than from other things that are easier to burn and already available.  (That includes petroleum, hydrogen, etc.)  Corn is the latest cash cow and the folks who want to sell it are going to milk it for every last penny.

Pennies...there's another overpriced thing we need to think about changing.  Ain't America great?

Answer 3

Because they're stupid, and far too trusting of the gov't.

Corn is the LEAST efficient means of making ethanol there IS.

Also, there IS no food shortage. There's plenty of food for everyone on this planet. We have a distribution problem and a political greed problem in the banana republics where people are starving.

Answer 4

There is no food shortage.  Theres more than enough corn around, and farmers can grow 10 times more if they wanted to.  Farmers deliberately don't grow a lot of food to keep prices high.  Less food means that food is more valuable.

("\O-O/")

Answer 5

corn is inexpensive to grow, cleaner to burn, and compared to the cost of oil, a total bargain.

I think they should investigate other sources as well though...

wouldn't it be just amazing if someone could make a clean burning, low cost, easy to produce fuel out of human waste???

Answer 6

Because corn is the not only food shortage.  Corn is good in alot of other different usages.  Not only for the use of oil.    Corn cannot protect us from all the other shortages.   I don't think you realized your own question.

Answer 7

I'm not short on food... I need fuel and we could probably use a few less people in the world anyhow so that's reason enough for me.

Answer 8

Very few people are actually interested in using corn for fuel, it's just that they have no choice.  This is a government mandate, not a market driven decision.  It is also a perfect example of how government mandates create more problems than they solve.  

Enjoy you loss of freedom along with the more expensive fuel you are now forced to buy.

Matt, it doesn't matter what kind of corn it is.  It is grown on the same land that could be used for growing food crops, so it displaces food production.  Anyway, while it is not the kind of corn you are used to eating, it is exactly the same corn that is used to make tortillas, to feed chickens (eggs), cattle (meat and dairy products) and whiskey.  All of these, especially corn masa (for tortillas) have increased substantially in price recently due to the diversion of food production to fuel ethanol.

Answer 9

The corn used to make ethanol is not food corn.  It is feed corn. There is a big difference. It would not be used as food anyways.   And also, as stated above, there is no food shortage!  I'll take clean, renewable, American made ethanol anyday over foreign oil.

Answer 10

Farmers grow as much corn as they possibly can to feed a growing population with a shrinking amount of land.

Corn yields are higher than they have ever been - ever.

Input prices are through the roof and so when compared with the high commodity prices farmers aren't really making a whole lot.

We can get 200 bushels of corn to one acre of land now; 30 years ago this number was much, much smaller.

Farmers have completely changed the way they work to try and produce as much as possible. Tillage practices have been changed (that means new equipment and more cost) they've added GPS systems to save fertilizer (at $4000-$20000 for a system), newer tractors are purchased just to offset higher fuel costs. Farmers are just doing what they can to make everything work today.

They don't dictate demand, they just grow.

As far as why everyone's using corn -we need to find a RENEWABLE resource. There's not a shortage here in America, elsewhere in the world yes. But these people in oil producing countries that purposefully lower production to keep prices high, they should have to compete with us for grain. If we make grain a viable fuel then we get the advantage again, we can tell all the Arabs to shove their oil.

Answer 11

You´re right, but. I think if corn can be used to produce fuel, it could be reproduced like clones. And could be a spice corn to feed and other spice corn to produce fuel.

That could be an alternative.

Answer 12

First of all I feel bad that people that don't have a clue answer these questions as if they know something.

Corn for fuel is I believe going to be short lived. Until recently the bacteria used to change corn to fuel were not efficient enough to use on other organtic waist. They have now genetically engineered bacteria that can break down the corn stalks, grass, wood, leaves.... It is going to become more profitable for the farmers to use the corn for food and what was up until now waist,  the stalks and other organtic waist for the production of ethanol.

Answer 13

I don't think everybody is so interested in biofuels:  some people are.  But to answer your question... it depends where the corn is grown.  Ask yourself if there is a real food shortage in developed countries which produce corn.  So if these countries have a fuel shortage and a corn producer will get more money for his or her crop by selling to someone who can make fuel what do you think they'll do?

Answer 14

exploring alternative sources is interesting,but corn won't do it...