THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 147, August 5, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
CORN FACTS, NOT CORN FLAKES
By Alan Caruba
AMERICAN AGRICULTURE, BIOFUELS, & INFLATION: PROPOSALS IN CONGRESS TO ENACT LEGISLATION
SUBSIDIZING & MANDATING GREATER PRODUCTION OF CORN ETHANOL & ITS INCREASED USE AS A MOTOR FUEL TO
REPLACE GASOLINE -- ENVIRONMENTALISTS & THEIR POLITICAL ALLIES IN CONGRESS SEEKING ENERGY POLICIES WHICH,
IF ADOPTED & IMPLEMENTED, WOULD SPELL DISASTER FOR THE AMERICAN ECONOMY
FULL STORY:
There’s a whole aspect of life in America about which fewer and fewer Americans know anything. It’s farming. Some two
percent of the population feed the rest of us who have no idea how what they produce gets to our plate. Responsible for
everything we eat, agriculture is also an essential element of our nation’s economy.
E. Ralph Hostetter, the Publisher of American Farm Publications, is one of the most cogent, sensible voices on
issues concerning farming today. Recently he wrote about “The Impact of Biofuels.” You might think he would be all for
converting corn into ethanol, but Hostetter is not. He sees the insanity of using corn — a crop used in the manufacture
of 3,500 commonly used products during their production or processing — in this fashion.
“The American public is told by our government the rate of inflation in 2006 was only 2.2 percent,” wrote Hostetter.
“However, when price increases in food and energy were factored in, the reality was that actual inflation was 4.8 percent,
or an increase of 118 percent what the nation was told.”
The volatility of food and energy prices is such that the government’s Consumer Price Index conveniently ignores them.
That doesn’t make the problem go away, but it does mislead the public.
“Today, 60 percent of the American corn crop is fed to U.S. livestock,” noted Hostetter. “Therefore, as the price of corn is
forced up by the demands of ethanol production and many natural causes such as weather, so is the price of meat, poultry,
eggs, milk, and more than 3,500 products Americans use every day.”
Among the products affected by the rise in the cost of corn are cake mixes, pizza, beer, whisky, candies, cookies, corn
flakes, cosmetics, instant coffee, carbonated beverages, fertilizers, vitamins, tires, toothpaste, paper products, and
pharmaceuticals such as aspirin and more than 85 different types of antibiotics. And that’s just a short list.
Across the board, the price of a bushel of corn was up six percent in 2006 because of federal government mandates for the
production and use of ethanol.
“Corn production for the nearly 7 billion gallons of ethanol production at the present time requires about 16 million acres or
20 percent of the total 80-plus million acres presently in corn production,” Hostetter noted. In the effort to cash in on the
federal ethanol mandates, production facilities cannot be built fast enough. In Iowa, when 55 ethanol plants become fully
operational, they will use virtually the entire corn crop of that State!
Proposals in Congress to increase biofuel production “will require nearly 100 million acres of corn, approximately a 25
percent increase above the present 80-plus million acres,” said Hostetter, which means that other crops such as soybeans
and cotton will not be planted.
At present, the U.S.A. “supplies 70 percent of world corn exports of some 55 million tons of corn. It is now estimated that
ethanol production in 2006 consumed about 50 million tons.” Goodbye world corn exports and the money generated for the
U.S. economy. Instead, that corn will be added to gasoline in the form of ethanol.
It’s not like the world is running out of oil for gasoline. There is no rational or scientific reason to reduce the use of gasoline
except for the charge that automobile and truck use generates “greenhouse gases,” but 95 percent of all greenhouse gases
is water vapor!
Environmentalists and the U.S. Congress want to destroy the U.S. economy by diverting corn from feeding the livestock and
other food products that we consume and the thousands of other uses for which it is required.
In 1992, Al Gore’s book, Earth in the Balance, was published. It is his screed about the way everyone is participating
in the destruction of the Earth. He wrote: “… it ought to be possible to establish a coordinated global program to accomplish
the strategic goal of completely eliminating the internal combustion engine over, say a twenty-five year period.”
Look under the hood of your car. That’s an internal combustion engine.
Driving up the cost of corn is pure genius, if you want to inflict financial pain on everyone and destroy the nation’s economy.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Political Economy -- Philosophies, Systems, & Public Policies:
Government, the Economy, & Economic Prosperity
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba’s new book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press.
© Alan Caruba 2007
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity