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Is Ethanol getting a Bum Rap?
businessweek.com — It's become fashionable to blame US ethanol policy for current global food prices, but do the numbers really add up? Even a lot of corn diverted to ethanol, we still had enough to supply the domestic market, increase exports to record levels, and stockpile a 10% surplus! So why are food prices going up, even for countries that hardly eat corn?
Terr01- 6 diggs
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- MacEnvy, on 06/05/2008, -0/+2According to government economic analysts, ethanol is only responsible for 1.5-2.5% of the food price increase. A lack of investment in productive infrastructure is much more important, especially considering the strides India and China have made versus the US over the last decade.
It's time to change our energy policy to encourage renewable energy (the gift that keeps on giving) and fix our broken agricultural policies, whose subsidies for raw farmland have been abused by large corporations who buy up subsidized land and end up getting the land cost paid for by the government for NOT farming. We need to restrict the subsidy benefit to exclude large corporations from buying reserved land, against the original intention of the subsidies.- Terr01, on 06/05/2008, -0/+2I fully agree that ethanol from corn is a stopgap solution at best, and that it ties into a broken agricultural policy.
My main point is that everyone screaming about the Eeevil Environmentalists causing World Famine OMG are contradicted by the statistics.
- Terr01, on 06/05/2008, -0/+2I fully agree that ethanol from corn is a stopgap solution at best, and that it ties into a broken agricultural policy.
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