Do you believe the rise in food prices is caused by the use of Ethanol, as has been claimed?

Question

Ethanol has been touted as an Alternative Fuel, although some say there are emission problems connected to its use. Ethanol, in our country, is primarily made from corn, and corn and corn syrup are important ingredients in much of our food products. Thus, the production of Ethanol is blamed for the rising prices in food. However, most of us do not know a soul using Ethanol as fuel, and there is only one gas station in Michigan offering Ethanol as an alternative choice. So why would Ethanol take the blame for the prices going up in food?

Answer 1

Some of the price increases, sure.

Note that much gasoline is 10% ethanol, so you do know many people using it.

And many more cars are produced each year that can burn 85% ethanol. The number of gas stations that sell that is expanding daily, although it is focused in the Midwest.

A lot of fleet vehicles burn 85%, since they can be refueled at a central site.

Numbers:

Historic U.S. fuel Ethanol Production

Year Millions of Gallons
1980 175
1981 215
1982 350
1983 375
1984 430
1985 610
1986 710
1987 830
1988 845
1989 870
1990 900
1991 950
1992 1,100
1993 1,200
1994 1,350
1995 1,400
1996 1,100
1997 1,300
1998 1,400
1999 1,470
2000 1,630
2001 1,770
2002 2,130
2003 2,800
2004 3,400
2005 3,904
2006 4,855

Answer 2

Yes and no. I think that there is plenty of corn. Every year the US dumps excess corn and grain crops into the markets of developing countries under the guise of "aid". It does not aid their economies, but puts local farmers out of business, while limiting the supply in the U.S. and keeping prices higher there. There is no shortage of corn. Besides, the best part of the plant to use in ethanol production is the stalks anyhow - we don't eat the stalks.
However, I think that all this hype about ethanol is causing some people to panic. On speculation that there will be a corn shortage, the prices of food are going up.

Answer 3

AND AGAIN large scale ethanol is made primarily from silage, the stalks, the part that no one but cows eat. (search CELLULOSIC ETHANOL) any rising prices are due to speculation and rising oil prices which effect product transportation costs. if the united states does produce 35 billion gallons by 2017. WONDERFUL! less oil from the middle east. I don't know why clueless people write articles and fuel this hysteria. the kernel is less than 1% of a corn plant it's much more efficient to utalize the other 99%

Answer 4

It shouldn't be playing much of a role right now, but corn futures were up here in KC today also. That could be the speculators as the gentleman said. It also could be because a few weeks ago they were expecting a very low price, due to the bumper crop this year. Those fears may have kept the price lower than it ought to have been. That would be my interpretation. There's also the various maneuverings by China to attempt to manipulate our grain market in their favor. That's mostly been directed towards soybeans, but the market is complex, and I don't pretend to understand it all. There can be tie-ins through the free trade agreements. The soybean market was already much in our favor, due to crop failures in Europe and elsewhere in the world.

I think everybody sees that the ethanol industry will tend to lower the price eventually, but like you, I think it's way too soon to be seeing that directly at this time.

Did you look at the reviews on this article?

Answer 5

No. Rising gasoline and diesel prices have at least twice the effect on the price of food as corn. Higher transportation costs result in higher food prices. Oil is the number one cause of inflation and raises the price of all goods you buy at the store due to higher shipping costs.

Answer 6

My grandmother has a farm in Iowa where they grow corn and soybeans and I asked her if she was happy that corn prices were up. She said that it didn't matter since seed, fertilizer and diesel fuel had all gone up in price too. If a barrel of oil is expensive than naturally diesel and fertilizer (it's made from petroleum by-products, mmm tasty) are going up in price too.
Retrofitting a refinery to produce ethanol is an expensive and dirty process.

Answer 7

Food prices going up are caused by a number of market related things besides Ethanol production.

The lack of a clear energy policy by the Federal Government is the biggest cause because the price of fuel has gone up for the farm tractors, the transport commodities to the processing plant and then the finished product to the grocery store.

Immigration policy causes the farmers and processors to heap on more cost for the unknowns of the future labor market.

Answer 8

Eethanol is used in most large metro areas. In Milwaukee we are forced to buy gas with a min. of 10% ethanol. Of course this will cause an increase in food prices. Corn is used as animal feed for our dairy industry(butter in approaching 5$ a lb) Corn is used as feed for beef cattle(ground beef is at over 3.25$ a lb) Restaurant prices are rising because of it. In Mexico the price of a tortia has increased over 400% in the last year. Millions of 3rd world people face starvation because of increased food costs. All of this is occuring because our elected representitives have become beholding to large ethanol manf. who write large checks to their campaign funds. Ethanol is not eco-friendly, does not decrease the use of oil(my auto looses 4 mpg using it). Of all the immoral policies used by the enviormental movement to destroy capitalisim this may well be the worst. Think this through, just what type of people would be cruel enough to burn food while millions starve on this planet, answer: anti-human eco-nuts

Answer 9

because it is connected in the futures markets- people have been inflating the price of corn on speculation that ethanol will become the alternative fuel of the future even though that hasnt occured - also corn is used to feed majority of animals which we eat alos so the price went up on them as well -but honestly it is only because of the speculation that corn seems to be in high demand

Answer 10

NOPE don't buy it! Also have done research and don't buy the hype on that if we use egas then we won't have enough food. I think it may be a combination of things, definitely the fact that gas has tripled recently has a lot to do with it, but because I wanna drive w/ my corn instead of eat it, don't believe it!