Rising Corn Prices

[GlassSteagallfan]

U.S. Restaurant Groups Blast Obama for Biofuels and Driving Up Food Prices

November 30, 2012 • 1:24PM

A 37-page report was issued Nov. 28 by the National Council of Chain Restaurants (NCCR) on the Obama Administration's insistence on corn-for-ethanol, given the corn shortage, emphasizing that it is driving up prices and harming the food supply. NCRR Executive Director Rob Green said at a press conference, yesterday, "The use of corn-based ethanol required by the Federal Renewable Fuel Standard mandate has dramatically distorted the market and increased costs throughout the food supply chain. The RFS mandate artificially inflates the price of corn, which increases costs throughout the system, from cattlemen and poultry and pork producers to dairy farmers and restaurant owners. The RFS mandate forces small business owners, franchisees, and their suppliers to spend higher and higher sums on commodities, which ultimately drives up prices on the end-user, the consumer."

Members of the NCCR include — besides the infamous big chains like McDonalds, Burger King, and Chi Chi's — many independent restaurant owners, and also family-based franchise operators.

The new report makes quantitative estimates of how much different categories of restaurants (quick-service, chains, full service, etc.) are facing in increased costs, due to Obama refusing to waive the RFS, to free corn into the food system.

The NCCR was one of dozens of farm and food groups which this Summer formed a coalition, to ask the Obama Administration to waive — temporarily or fully — the annual RFS mandate, given the drought reducing the corn supply. Obama arrogantly rebuffed them all, and after the Nov. 6 presidential election, the Environmental Protection Agency denied their appeal entirely.

http://larouchepac.com/node/24642

[sunnyrap]

On what could pass for the postive side of this issue, if you've paid any attention to the GMO (genetically modified food) threads, you know that more than 90% of all corn crops have been genetically modified and have been cemphatiically demonstrated to be hazardous to our health:

Shock findings in new GMO study: Rats fed lifetime of GM corn grow horrifying tumors, 70% of females die early
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...)


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/037249_GMO_study_cancer_tumors_organ_damage.html#ixzz2DjjYkOlM

[13th Warrior]

On what could pass for the postive side of this issue, if you've paid any attention to the GMO (genetically modified food) threads, you know that more than 90% of all corn crops have been genetically modified and have been cemphatiically demonstrated to be hazardous to our health:

Shock findings in new GMO study: Rats fed lifetime of GM corn grow horrifying tumors, 70% of females die early
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...)


Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/037249_GMO_study_cancer_tumors_organ_damage.html#ixzz2DjjYkOlM

That's right! These are food like products that most of us want no part of.

[sunnyrap]

However, there are other reasons to object to corn being used for fuel besides it hiking up the cost of the crop and a major food source being made unavailable to both people and livestock*: ethanol costs 150% more to produce per gallon than oil, renders 70% back as energy, causes consumers to have to put additives in their gas or risk damage to their combustion engines because a by-product of ethanol combustion is water--yep, it puts water in your gasoline.

*evidently there is a severe shortage of forage corn for cattle, chickens and other livestock.

So if it doesn't seem to work for anybody, why is this happening, you ask:



Ethanol as Energy Alternative (http://www.energyrefuge.com/archives/ethanol_as_energy_alternative.htm)
Ethanol has drawbacks as energy alternative

By William Reed

There is an illusion that ethanol can provide the liquid fuel America needs to meet increasing energy demand in the years ahead. That illusion is particularly counterproductive if we're serious about preventing government energy subsidies from getting out of hand.

Ethanol needs a tax write-off for one simple reason: Made from corn, it costs more to produce than gasoline.

To encourage the production of ethanol, the federal government provides a 51-cent-a-gallon tax break to refiners and blenders that mix ethanol into their gasoline. This adds up to about $2 billion a year. An additional tax reduction goes to "small" ethanol producers, those who make up to 60 million gallons of ethanol a year. Bio-diesel gets a $1-a-gallon federal tax credit. A number of states, mainly in the Midwest corn belt, are adding as much as 20 cents more with credits, tax reductions, and other incentives.



And although last year's corn harvest was the second largest in history, the government shells out more than $4 billion a year in subsidies for corn production.

No doubt the manipulators have some shady game afoot it would behoove us to noodle out. Or, it just may be a really good time to have Congress lift the ban on Hemp as a food and forage crop. Corn's a goner anyway, if it's true that the genetic changes would be a major challenge to reverse.

[conk]

Forget corn. Hemp and/or peanuts could provide a tremendous amount of fuel.

Anyway, corn is not really an acceptable food source. Basically just sugar and undigestible fiber. Just another grain that shouldn't be in anyone's diet.

[13th Warrior]

However, there are other reasons to object to corn being used for fuel besides it hiking up the cost of the crop and a major food source being made unavailable to both people and livestock*: ethanol costs 150% more to produce per gallon than oil, renders 70% back as energy, causes consumers to have to put additives in their gas or risk damage to their combustion engines because a by-product of ethanol combustion is water--yep, it puts water in your gasoline.

*evidently there is a severe shortage of forage corn for cattle, chickens and other livestock.

So if it doesn't seem to work for anybody, why is this happening, you ask:



Ethanol as Energy Alternative (http://www.energyrefuge.com/archives/ethanol_as_energy_alternative.htm)
Ethanol has drawbacks as energy alternative

By William Reed

There is an illusion that ethanol can provide the liquid fuel America needs to meet increasing energy demand in the years ahead. That illusion is particularly counterproductive if we're serious about preventing government energy subsidies from getting out of hand.

Ethanol needs a tax write-off for one simple reason: Made from corn, it costs more to produce than gasoline.

To encourage the production of ethanol, the federal government provides a 51-cent-a-gallon tax break to refiners and blenders that mix ethanol into their gasoline. This adds up to about $2 billion a year. An additional tax reduction goes to "small" ethanol producers, those who make up to 60 million gallons of ethanol a year. Bio-diesel gets a $1-a-gallon federal tax credit. A number of states, mainly in the Midwest corn belt, are adding as much as 20 cents more with credits, tax reductions, and other incentives.



And although last year's corn harvest was the second largest in history, the government shells out more than $4 billion a year in subsidies for corn production.

No doubt the manipulators have some shady game afoot it would behoove us to noodle out. Or, it just may be a really good time to have Congress lift the ban on Hemp as a food and forage crop. Corn's a goner anyway, if it's true that the genetic changes would be a major challenge to reverse.

It's true that corn isn't the best feedstock when it comes to making ethanol; there are other crops much better suited for ethanol production.

By the way, did you know that corn isn't a healthy food source for most livestock? Did you also know that once corn has been "mashed" and then distilled to make alcohol, the feedstock that's left over is a higher quality feedstock that cattle can actually digest?

Check out David Bloom/Alcohol Can Be A Gas; he might just change your opinion about ethanol...

[sunnyrap]

Yes, I saw a great documentary on how algae is the best for producing ethanol...though I don't know if its ethanol is any better for our cars than corn ethanol. There is a movement afoot to prevent ethanol from being increased to 15% of the mix because it is certain to cause wholesale damage to most engines.

I hadn't heard that leftover corn feedstock is better for livestock--thanks for bringing that up. When I researched it, I found this from the American Cattlemen website (http://www.americancattlemen.com/articles/ethanol-impact-feed-prices): (short exerpt, use link to read full article)

Home » Cattle Articles » Ethanol Impact on Feed Prices
Ethanol Impact on Feed Prices
Written By: Renewable Fuels Association

Fueled by its desire for conflict, and a well-funded and organized public relations blitz by food and livestock industries, the media has spent a great deal of time in the past two years trying to portray an epic battle between America’s need for renewable alternatives to gasoline and its role as breadbasket to world.
Despite unsupported and hysterical claims, the battle between ethanol production and food and feed resources is not a battle at all. In fact, it is a symbiotic relationship that promises to provide long term financial gain for livestock and ethanol producers alike.
First, it is critical that all sides in the debate agree to the facts. Ethanol production from corn is not leading to a shortage of grain for livestock feed. Quite the opposite is true. Because ethanol production produces both fuel and livestock feed, its quickly becoming a driving market force in the location and production of beef and dairy cattle.

(snipped)
In 2009, ethanol biorefineries converted 3.8 billion bushels of corn into a record 10.75 billion gallons of ethanol and a record 30.5 million metric tons of high-value livestock feed, distillers grains and corn gluten feed and meal. To put that into perspective, the 30.5 million metric tons of feed generated by the industry in 2009 is roughly equivalent to the total amount of grain fed to cattle in the nation’s feedlots.
This point is one that doesn’t get a lot of press attention, but is critical to both an informed debate on biofuels policy and the bottom lines of ethanol and livestock producers alike.
(snipped)

ogy that allows them to separate crude corn oil from the stillage on the back end of the process. This crude corn oil can be sold into the feed market (particularly for poultry), further refined and sold into the human food market, or used as a feedstock for biodiesel. When used as a biodiesel feedstock, corn oil displaces higher value vegetable oils that are typically used in food applications.
(snip)
Animal scientists and nutritionists continue to study the feeding of ethanol feed co-products to animals. Though beef, dairy, swine and poultry have been the primary consumers of these co-products historically, an increasing amount of research is being conducted that examines the effects of feeding co-products to other species, such as goats, sheep, and fish. The use of ethanol co-products in human food applications is another area of increasing scientific interest. As innovation in feed co-product technology grows, so too will the volume of co-products available. The 15 billion gallon allotment for corn starch-based ethanol in the Renewable Fuels Standard implies distillers grains production of roughly 38 million metric tons—enough to displace approximately 1.6 billion bushels of corn from feed rations.

While new technologies and practices promise to change the complexion of the ethanol co-products market in the years ahead, one certainty exists about the future of feed co-products: the ethanol industry will continue to take very seriously its role as a producer of safe, quality feed. Not only are U.S. ethanol producers helping to meet future demands for energy, but they are also helping the agriculture industry meet the increasing food and feed needs of a growing world.

[13th Warrior]

Adding ethanol to gasoline only makes sense if you are trying to remove water from your fuel tank.

Ethanol fuel is superior to gasoline in most categories.

Ethanol has a higher octane rating; this allows the use of higher compression engines that produce more power.

Ethanol is oxygenated and burns cleaner

Ethanol engines run cooler

Ethanol has a lower vapor pressure than gasoline and is much safer to use.

Engines designed to run specifically on ethanol would be much more efficient than then a gasoline engine running an gas/alcohol blend.