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<p>The consumption of corn starches and seed oils as automotive fuels
is thermodynamically/entropically stupid, and economically unsound, as
well as unethical. Of course it is strategically wise in the minds of
the evil hegemons who rule the US of A to starve out others as a means
of more and more power.<br>
</p>
<p><br>
The Ethanol industry is driven by politics and some of the most
unethical xomboid human shells on the planet are ramrodding it, such as
the "leadership" of the US Corn Growers Association and geniuses like
Saxby Chambliss. Like Ted
Geisel's Once-ler, they have no intent for their positive feedback loop
except biggering, and Biggering, and BIGGERING. Damn the young
barbaloots in their barbaloot suits. Who cares about crummies in the
tummies? The automobiles of the world
demand ethanol and their owners have the money to buy the ethanol that
everyone, everyone, Everyone needs. This buggery of biggering is
backed by billions of bucks provided on the backs of the people, and by
that buffoon Bernanke's infinite printing press and for the benefit of
Obot's bankster buddies. They say that Ethanol is good for the
environment, building lie upon lie. Babel's bricks are mortared with
slime indeed.<br>
</p>
<p>*<br>
<img alt="" src="cid:part1.04080807.08050402@pigs.ag" height="241"
width="307"><br>
</p>
<p>*</p>
"ad viros qui sedent super murum ut comedant stercora sua et bibant
urinam suam vobiscum"<br>
<br>
<p><u>Madness of Biofuels --</u></p>
<p>Last month, Peter Brabeck, the chairman of the Swiss food giant
Nestle,
declared that using food crops to make biofuels was "absolute madness."</p>
<p>The epicenter of that madness is the U.S. corn-ethanol sector. This
year, it will consume 40 percent of all U.S. corn - that's about 15
percent of global corn production or 5 percent of all global grain - in
order to produce a volume of motor fuel with the energy equivalent of
about 0.6 percent of global oil needs.</p>
<p>Congress lavishes about $7 billion in annual subsidies, mandates and
tariff protections upon an industry that is helping push global food
prices to all-time highs and shrink grain reserves at the very same
time that global grain production is faltering and protests over food
prices are becoming common.</p>
<p>The quantity of grain to be consumed this year for ethanol
production - 4.9 billion bushels - boggles the mind. That's more than
twice as much as all the corn produced in Brazil and more than six
times as much as is grown in India. Put another way, that's more corn
than the output of the European Union, Mexico, Argentina and India
combined.</p>
<p>Despite these facts, President Obama said last month in his State of
the Union speech, "We can break our dependence on oil with biofuels."
Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House, who is
considering a run for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, was
in Iowa recently, cravenly wooing the ethanol producers and slamming
"big city" critics of the ethanol industry. Alas, there's little reason
to expect much bravery out of Mr. Gingrich's fellow Republicans on
Capitol Hill. Current Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican,
recently told reporters not to expect cuts to the ethanol subsidies
because they are "not in the discretionary spending pot."</p>
<p>While Mr. Obama prevaricates and Congress dithers, ethanol boosters
are once again claiming that their sector has negligible effect on
grain prices. However, the events of the past few weeks - corn futures
at near-record highs and social unrest related to food prices - are
nearly identical to the mayhem that occurred in 2007 and 2008. Back
then, more than a dozen studies, including ones by Purdue University,
the World Bank and the Congressional Research Service, exposed the link
between increasing ethanol production and higher food prices. Soaring
food prices led to violent protests in Egypt, Cameroon, Ivory Coast,
Haiti, Mauritania, Ethiopia, Madagascar, the Philippines and Indonesia.
Worries about adequate food stocks led several countries to ban food
exports.</p>
<p>In May 2008, the Rand Corp. warned that diverting corn to the
ethanol sector was not only bad economics, but a security threat:
"Using corn for ethanol is economically inefficient and has harmed U.S.
national security. Diverting corn from food to ethanol production has
pushed up world market prices for grains and other foods, which, in
2008, resulted in riots in a number of developing countries."</p>
<p>In recent weeks, we've seen food price increases and protests that
are reminiscent of 2008. There have been food riots in Algeria and
Mozambique. Last month, about 8,000 Jordanians protested in the streets
of Amman and other cities over rising food prices. In Egypt, the
world's biggest wheat importer, wheat prices are up by 30 percent over
the past 12 months. Those higher wheat prices are being stoked by
rising corn prices, which have doubled over the past six months and are
at about $7 per bushel. "Higher corn prices always means higher wheat
prices," says Bill Lapp, president of Advanced Economic Solutions, an
Omaha-based commodity consulting firm.</p>
<p>In December, a study by two U.S. agriculture economists, Thomas Elam
and Steve Meyer, found that corn prices are being directly stoked by
demand from the ethanol sector. Mr. Elam and Mr. Meyer, who have done
consulting work for the meat industry, found that without the ethanol
mandates, the average price of corn would be lower by more than $2 per
bushel. They also conclude that "biofuels policy has caused significant
cost increases for all users of feedgrains."</p>
<p>David Orden, a senior research fellow at the International Food
Policy Research Institute in Washington, told me that surging corn
prices are "a continuation of what happened in 2008." The push for
biofuels, he said, "has clearly tightened up agricultural commodity
markets. That's good for farmers, but it is not good for poor people
around the world."</p>
<p>Many of those poor live in the United States. Some 43.6 million
Americans, about 14 percent of the population, are receiving federal
food stamps. Since October 2008, the number of Americans relying on
food stamps jumped by 41.5 percent, and enrollment in the program has
increased for 26 consecutive months. And thanks to the ethanol scam,
those many millions are being priced out of the meat aisle. Over the
past year, beef prices have risen more than 6 percent, and pork prices
are up 11 percent. Economists are expecting overall grocery prices in
the United States to rise by about 5 percent this year.</p>
<p>But the real - and likely more dangerous - food-price increases will
happen outside of this country. Last year, the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development projected that global grain prices
are likely to be as much as 40 percent higher by 2020, and a
London-based nonprofit entity, ActionAid, predicted that some 600
million more people could be left hungry by 2020 because of increased
production of biofuels.</p>
<p>Mr. Brabeck, the chairman of Nestle, the world's biggest food
company, has rightly put the spotlight on the biofuels madness. As the
head of a company with $100 billion in annual food-related revenues,
Mr. Brabeck clearly has a keen understanding of the global food
industry. And last month during the World Economic Forum in Davos,
Switzerland, he identified the stunningly obvious solution to the
ongoing insanity. "No food for fuel," he said.</p>
<p>It's time - no, it's long past time - to heed Mr. Brabeck's advice.
"No food for fuel" should be the mantra on Capitol Hill and at the
United Nations. In addition, it should be a required oath for all of
the candidates (Mr. Gingrich in particular) who are planning to
campaign in Iowa for the 2012 presidential election.</p>
<p>Stop the madness.</p>
<p><em>Robert Bryce is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. His
latest book is "Power Hungry: The Myths of 'Green' Energy and the Real
Fuels of the Future" (PublicAffairs, 2010).</em></p>
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