Rod Dreher

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You Can’t Feed Hungry People Ethanol

By Rod Dreher • August 3, 2012, 1:04 AM

An opportunity to do something long overdue?:

The worst drought in 50 years has intensified across the US midwest, not only condemning this year’s corn crop but threatening the prospects for next year’s too, new figures showed on Thursday.

The political fallout intensified as well, with growing pressure for the Obama administration to end its support for corn ethanol.

Critics say diverting food to fuel for corn ethanol production risks a global food crisis, tightening supplies and driving up prices. Nearly a third of Congress members signed on to a letter calling on the Environmental Protection Administration to scale down its support for corn ethanol.

Do it!

Posted in Food. Tagged drought, ethanol.

16 Responses to You Can’t Feed Hungry People Ethanol

Dimitry Aleksandrovich says:

August 3, 2012 at 1:50 am

As long as food is cheap then Washington DC can continue to get away with it’s charades without any real consequences. That’s why the only reaction to the recent (2008) global economic downturn was the Occupy Movement and to some degree the Tea Party as well. Watch if the price of milk, bread, meat and other staples doubles or godforbid triples or more there will be riots across this country. There will be bloodshed, there will be mayhem and the government won’t be able to control it. I pray it doesn’t happen but we are being told now that we will be shocked by rising food prices in the fall.
Charles Cosimano says:

August 3, 2012 at 2:58 am

Do we need to feed them?

Hey, somebody has to ask it.
MH - Secular Misanthropist says:

August 3, 2012 at 5:50 am

From what I’ve read producing ethanol from corn requires more fossil fuel inputs than the fuel produced. So this program was doomed from inception to increase the cost of food and gasoline. But the political fallout has always prevented killing this program.
Dan Davis says:

August 3, 2012 at 6:02 am

Only a third of Congress? Ethanol is a scam, nothing but a giveaway to Agribusiness. It corrodes engines and fuel systems and returns poorer mileage than pure gasoline. It needs to go away.
Don Quijote says:

August 3, 2012 at 8:21 am

When Pigs fly!!!

You seriously think that a Republican congress is going to take easy money out of the pockets of wealthy, rural, “Real Americans” Republicans in Red States so that the poor in the US and through-out the world can have access to cheap food?

Even you can’t be that naive…
jaybird says:

August 3, 2012 at 9:07 am

You seriously think that a Republican congress is going to take easy money out of the pockets of wealthy, rural, “Real Americans” Republicans in Red States so that the poor in the US and through-out the world can have access to cheap food?

I wouldn’t have put quite so crassly, but yeah – I have a hard time believing that corn/farm states are just going to let ethanol subsidies be revoked without a serious fight.
Pete S says:

August 3, 2012 at 9:08 am

Let’s be honest – as long as Iowa has a huge veto in the presidential nomination process ethanol requirements (a defacto subsidy) are not going anywhere. The article should point out that 2/3 of Congress do not want to change the rules.

While we are at it, how about reducing the trade barriers to import sugar so that we are not also providing incentives to convert corn to high fructose corn syrup?

I don’t expect much from Democrats on this but every Republican who says the words “Free Market” when discussing issues like health care and campaign finance need to support these kind of changes. You either believe in the market or you don’t.
tbraton says:

August 3, 2012 at 9:09 am

“From what I’ve read producing ethanol from corn requires more fossil fuel inputs than the fuel produced.”

MH-Secular Misanthropist, that has been known for more than 20 years–plus, it doesn’t do much if anything to reduce pollution that supposedly contributed to “global warming,” which was the ostensible justification for the program. The only new development in recent years was Al Gore finally coming out against corn-based ethanol and admitting that his support for corn-based ethanol over the years (as Representative, Senator, Presidential contender, and as propagandist for global warming) was based purely on political considerations.
Pete S says:

August 3, 2012 at 9:30 am

Charles Cosimano – I think you are misinterpreting the headline – I don’t think Rod is endorsing a government program to give poor people some food. He is endorsing the elimination a government regulation that reduces our food supply, therefore driving up prices for everyone including the poor.
tbraton says:

August 3, 2012 at 10:34 am

“I wouldn’t have put quite so crassly, but yeah – I have a hard time believing that corn/farm states are just going to let ethanol subsidies be revoked without a serious fight.”

jaybird, actually I believe that direct subsidies to corn used for ethanol came to an end after 2011, but, as Pete S pointed out, there remains the indirect subsidy provided by the requirement that at least 10% of auto fuel be comprised of ethanol. The EPA is seeking to increase the required minimum to 15%, which would wreak havoc on the economy while further enriching corn farmers.
BradleyP says:

August 3, 2012 at 11:30 am

And while we’re at it, let’s phase out subsidies for the kind of corn used for making HFCS. That’s one I’d think Obama would embrace.
Julana says:

August 3, 2012 at 11:46 am

This isn’t going to change until people who strongly disagree can sit down across a table and listen to each other.
This is a no-brainer to me, but I ran into a friend from high school whose brother is past president of the American Corn Growers Assn, or whatever it’s called, the national body.
I made a one sentence statement of my opinion (in a kaffeeklatsch), as a segue from another topic, and she smiled and firmly closed her mouth. Cannot even talk about it.
Beyng says:

August 3, 2012 at 1:10 pm

“The EPA is seeking to increase the required minimum to 15%, which would wreak havoc on the economy.”

It would also wreak havoc upon automobiles, law mowers, boats, and other gasoline-fueled implements everywhere. This actually is not a minor consideration. Ethanol, especially at levels above 10% in gasoline, is very bad for engines.
SusanKG says:

August 3, 2012 at 1:27 pm

I grew up in rural North Dakota, and am always surprised when I go back. When I was a child, the main crops were wheat and sunflowers, with some barley and soybeans thrown in. Now, it is field after field of corn. There are different corn varieties now that better withstand the shorter growing season and smaller amount of rain in North Dakota. And farmers make much more on corn because of the subsidies. I miss the sunflowers and the wheat.
tbraton says:

August 4, 2012 at 5:24 am

“Do we need to feed them?

Hey, somebody has to ask it.”

Charles Cosimano, we could always pull a page out of the Reagan playbook and classify ethanol as a “vegetable,” since it is made from corn. If we fed then ethanol, we would probably wind up with a lot fewer hungry people.
Siarlys Jenkins says:

August 5, 2012 at 10:35 pm

A nurse whose work focuses on the damage done to lungs by ozone and other pollutants claimed that the corn used for ethanol production is unfit for human consumption anyway. If true, and its a big if, then perhaps its not a case of food v. fuel. But maybe land that would have been used to grow food is being converted to growing corn unfit for human consumption.

In any case, ethanol production is terribly inefficient as far as energy conservation goes. Now if they could convert it using solar heat rather than gas flames…