I've used this section or category because after all food is "health". I've been really wondering what's going to happen to world food supply in the event that 'etanol' use succeeds. For example in South Florida early this morning the first "etanol" pumps were inaugurated. Eighty-five percent being etanol and rest gasoline.
Couple of months back there was a crisis in Mexico due to the government's increase of corn price, apparently because much more is being used for etanol. It is so ironic that only a few years back here in the USA, many farmers were suffering because they had to dump their "unwanted" corn.
Am I being pessimistic to think we're going to be deprived pretty soon of many foods. By the way this apparently is a direct cause of the hike in price for all milk products. At least that's what I read about a month ago.
2007-09-13 09:59:43 · 4 answers · asked by 1-2informationalways 1 in Social Science ➔ Economics
YES!!!! OMG YES YES YES.. :) ok.. I'll calm down.
Too much corn waste is being put into our foods already. Don't worry, your corn chips will safe, and so will your popcorn.
However, other things that are now being made from corn such as preservatives, yeasts, xanthan gum, etc.. are going to be too expensive to continue to make from corn.. so they'll go back to making it from what they used to make it from before corn flooded the market.
Corn isn't a very "healthy" food.. its a very fattening food.. Its what they feed cattle to fatten it up for slaughter.
I think our health and diets will be much improved once our food supply stops being centered around corn.
Temporarily .. you might see a price hike in certain foods as companies switch over to non-corn processed goods, but eventually things will go back to normal.
Maybe even Coke will go back to using real sugar.. but I won't be holding my breath.
2007-09-13 23:11:17 · answer #1 · answered by V 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are many plants materials that are not edible that can be used to make ethanol. The bill past by congress had more to do with helping US corn producers that energy conservation. We have been providing subsidies to agriculture , causing an over production. This depressed the world price for grain, hurting farmers in poor nations who do not have subsidies.. Using the some of the surplus for fuel makes sense, but at the same time we baned import of ethanol from other countries that produce it from waste plant material. Hopefully the present policy will be changed to make more economic sense.
Though having cheap milk is nice, it always seemed weird to me that bottled water cost nearly the same as milk.
2007-09-13 20:42:02 · answer #2 · answered by meg 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes we all trade part of our food harvest for fuel of one type or another. this applies to all the developed nations.
Global warming is a fact of life for us all, & unfortunately, we are all already feeling the 'economic pinch', as we in Australia are suffering drought conditions in our huge wheat-belt areas. However we are extremely fortunate that we have immense mineral wealth to keep the country going for very many years ---- but where will the food be for any of us to purchase in the future, if conditions worsen as the climate changes more each year ?.
2007-09-20 21:15:15 · answer #3 · answered by maharg 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Corn is NOT "many foods". It's just corn. Anyway, in my country we do not it corn. It's good for cattle only. And now for etanol.
2007-09-20 16:04:50 · answer #4 · answered by Borat2® 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋