[Dems2008] Re: Inflation: Corn Shock

There are a number of different biofuels on the drawing board, from corn-based to saw-grass to a dozen other sources.   My view is that the corn-based ethanol craze will ultimately fail, and that it is just a sop to the very powerful Farm Lobby. 

If I'm recalling correctly, McCain was the only candidate with the integrity to say as much in Iowa

 [Even if corn-based ethanol were to succeed, and even if it did not push corn prices as high as it already has (with devastating effects on some emerging economies), it would give us only the equivalent of about a two-mile per gallon increase in fuel efficiency; and some serious studies have concluded that it TAKES as much energy to make a gallon of ethanol as the energy "saved" by that gallon; physicists will tell you that you cannot CREATE a quantum of additional energy from a given volume of mass (i.e., feedstock); rather, technology can just CONVERT a unit of energy to a different form of energy; by contrast, wind, solar, and those alternatives of course do not suffer from that physical restraint]

.

--- In Dems2008@yahoogroups.com, "Sandra Goodwin" <bridger82923@...> wrote:
>
> This one of the reasons I am not in favor of bio fuels. Obama
> specifically mentions a fund for bio in his environmental policy. We
> need to look in other directions like electric and hybrid vehicles.
>
> Sandra
>
>
> In Dems2008@yahoogroups.com, "citation502" citation502@ wrote:
> >
> >
> > Corn being a major part of our food supply (directly, and as feed
> for
> > livestock and an ingredient in other products), here is what one
> member
> > in my investment group observed this week:
> >
> > ----------------
> >
> > I raise a couple hundred pheasants and 120 chickens every year. Last
> > August I bought whole corn for $8.75 per 100 lbs. Today I paid
> $12.50 -
> > a 43% increase. Glad I'm no longer feeding two hogs each year.
> Going to
> > be an expensive year on the animal feed front.
> >
> > Archie
> >
> > [FOOD of course is EXCLUDED from meaurements of "core" inflation"]
> >
>

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