Ethanols Unintended Consequences

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I seriously cannot believe that no one saw this coming.

1) prices for fuels from oil rise sharply
2) a possible substitute can be made utilizing corn
3) corn is already used for human and animal consumption
4) possible profits from use in fuel manufacture may be greater than profits from food manufacture

Now, based on that, answer these questions:
a) Whats going to happen to the price of corn
b) Whats going to happen to the availabilty of corn

Article:
The ethanol craze is putting the squeeze on corn supplies and causing food prices to rise.

Now Im sure someone somewhere in about a year is going to come up with some fast growing, seldomly-consumed grain that can be used instead of corn. But until then…as the article states, corn is used in almost all foods and thus prices may go up.

How does this fit into this blog? Well, unexpected increases in food prices mean buying your food preps becomes more expensive, the poor get less food for their $, more food-growing resources will be directed towards corn manufacture at the expense of other crops which will possibly increase as their availability drops, etc, etc.
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7 thoughts on “Ethanols Unintended Consequences”

  2. I’ve had my eye on the ethanol scam for awhile now. It’s clear that it has the potential to become a major problem – just one more in a long series of unintended consequences of short-sighted lawmaking that ignores reality.

  4. Well let’s see, corn is used in:

    Sweeteners
    Cooking Meal
    Animal Feed
    People Food
    Fuel
    Cooking Oil
    Plastics
    Fabrics

    Thus an increase in fuel production demand will cause the prices of just some of the following to rise:

    – Soft drinks (corn syrup)
    – Chicken (animal feed)
    – Beef (animal feed)
    – Lamb (animal feed)
    – Pork (animal feed)
    – Snack Food (corn meal)
    – Fast Food (corn meal, cooking oil)
    – Liquor (corn mash)
    – Cereal (corn meal)
    – Gasoline

    Many of these are staple items. When the price of so many goods is driven upwards I think there’s a real potential for some serious economic problems. I can also see the need to start removing farm subsidies for corn producing farmers.

    Additionally this also sets up a single point of failure in the event of natural disasters. What happens if a line of storms wipes out the corn crop for the year? What about drought, pests, shortages in any of the products used to grow corn (ie fertilizer, etc.)? We’d be forced to buy our corn elsewhere and then we’d be right back where we started from with oil.

  5. and, food corn is checked and regulated vis a vis contamination and etc… would ethanol corn , requiring just the bio mass really, be less regulated and thus cheaper and easier to grow?

  7. interresting point

    as prices for fuel rise along with less corn to feed from, oh there be great profits made as middle class americans get poorer for it. can forsee a future where one cannot afford to feed the auto or family, sooner than most will think out there. have a pleasent nightmare, Wildflower 07

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