What Ethanol is About
Posted: February 11, 2008
This week’s editorial from the American Farm Bureau is about what ethanol is about – keeping more money in America.
Farm Bureau News editor Lynne Finnerty writes:
As production of corn-based ethanol has increased, so has criticism such as the claim that we could run out of food or not be able to afford it because U.S. ethanol refineries are using so much corn. A New York Times editorial of Sept. 19, 2007, said the ramp-up in ethanol production was causing food prices to rise and “threatening misery for the poorest countries.”
Ah, yes, the poor countries. We’ve been hearing a lot about them from the New York Times. In fact, it was only a year or two ago that the newspaper and others opined that U.S. overproduction of commodities due to farm subsidies was making it impossible for farmers in poor countries to compete with U.S. exports (and was making everyone fat). U.S. farmers are either over-producing or under-producing, but it can’t be both. The good news for farmers everywhere, in poor and rich countries, is that demand for their crops is way up.
Lynne then explains the other factors contributing to higher food prices, such as tight grain supplies and increased demand for livestock feed in China and India, and concludes:
It seems no matter what American farmers do, they will always be somebody’s whipping boy. But claiming that they’re taking food out of peoples’ mouths is a new low.
Which would you rather support: Middle East palaces, or a homegrown fuel industry that creates jobs and economic renewal in the U.S.? Let’s burn more U.S.-grown, renewable fuel and send fewer American dollars to places like Abu Dhabi.
Read the full editorial or listen to it on-line here.
