No. It’s not my humor (no matter how many of you think so).
Corn.
It’s so...........American. I mean, we grow the stuff like it’s nobody’s business. We feed it to our livestock. We feed it to ourselves. We have even begun to use it to heat our homes. It seems that we had an endless supply of the stuff...........until.
That’s right. Until.
Until we get the great idea to turn corn into Ethanol. E-85. The saviour of the gas crisis. Turn corn into gas, goes the story, and our dependence upon expensive foreign oil will go down. We can sell the stuff at $1.88 per gallon and make money, so it is a perfect solution. Perfect, that is, until we let our free market friends run wild.
Within months, hundreds, if not thousands, of ethanol plants started to spring up in the US. Their goal is to pump as much E-85 into the marketplace as the marketplace will hold. Automakers get on board with the plan. Even Meijer gas stations start selling the stuff......But not at $1.88 per gallon. They sell it at $.30 less than regular gas. (Right now, that makes it $2.95 per gallon) It’s a savings, but nothing to write home about. But gasoline prices are not the only thing impacted by our collective corniness. Let us pause to reflect upon our free market and its foibles.
Farmers, seeing an opportunity, turn every field available into corn. Ethanol plants buy up all the available corn, so that even with farmers cranking out way more corn than ever before, there’s just not enough. So what happens? The price of corn, set by the free market, skyrockets.
Well, where’s the beef? It’s in the meat section sitting all alone because no one can afford to buy the stuff. That’s right. We didn’t stop to think of whether the $.30 per gallon that some of us can save (those with E-85 vehicles) might be offset by soaring corn prices that are reflected in higher costs of livestock. I wonder if the $.30 per gallon that some people may be saving is offset by the $.40 per pound increase in the prices of meat?
But that’s not all. There is a hay shortage as well. Ask anyone with horses. No one has hay available because corn has started the new “gold fever” for farmers. In fact, there was a story on the news the other day that many people are abandoning their horses because they can no longer afford hay, and even when they can afford it, there is no hay available to be had. Where’s PETA when you really need them?
Oh well, my guess is that your ears have been filled with my rantings, so I’m off to stalk another unwary topic.
Cornily Yours,
Blawgerman
4 comments:
As the english would say "SPOT ON", one thing you are forgetting "bloggerman" this is the free system of the Great country of the USA, when ever I here stories like this I am kindly reminded of the clasic picture of a bunch of rats standing around a rat trap with one of their fellow rats head caught in the trap and insted of his brothers trying to get the trap bar off of him they are taking turns at his back side...all while they are cracking wise and having a good ol time. there is a big difference between "free enterprise" and "SCREWING" someone when they are down. I guess America only has one person they can blame and thats our shelves !
I think you have a spelling problem.
I think that everyone who can't get their Giant gas guseling SUV's (Suburban's)retro fitted for e85 should be forced to march (drive) on Washington while dumping tons of corn on Capitol Hill.
It is really interesting that actually India is leading the way in alternative fuels. There is a plant called Jatropha thats seads/nuts have a very high % of oil that they are converting to biodeisel. The Jatropha nut or bean only grows in harsh environs live the desert. Also, other then some medicinal purposes it cannot be consumed by humans.
So there is this alternative engery source available that disrupts niether farmland nor consumable crops that we are totally ingnoring - another case of strong special interest lobbies.
The economic clamity you describe for the US is having far reaching global effects in third world nations - they cant get food at reasonable costs.
All this being said, biodeseil is the answer though noone in our county understands it - the infastructure exists and deisel engines were originally designed to run on vegi oil.
So go try to buy a vehicle with a deisel engine in the US. Other than a truck you'll be looking for a loooooonng time.
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