Where has all the corn gone?

I went to the feed store last week to check on the latest spike in feed costs. This past summer I could buy a bag of corn for $4.50 per fifty pound bag, now the price stands at $6.00 a bag. Imagine staples like milk or eggs jumping twenty five percent in a few months—we would have riots at the checkout counters.

Why the big price jump? The word among the farmers waiting for their feed to be loaded was ethanol and they’re probably right. With the spike in oil prices and an increasing desire among the public to see something done about foreign oil, more and more corn is being diverted from food to fuel. With ethanol, politicians can act green, dropping phrases like “renewable fuels,” and score points in the over important state of Iowa, by promising ethanol subsidies and corn in every tank. But there’s a problem—corn is an inefficient source of ethanol requiring more fuel inputs than the outputs produced. And competition for corn from both the food and fuel sectors could turn the energy crisis into a food crisis.

Lester Brown, the author of Plan B and founder of the Earth Policy Institute, says that “The grain required to fill a 25-gallon SUV gas tank with ethanol will feed one person for a year. The grain it takes to fill the tank every two weeks over a year will feed 26 people.”

Already the rising price of corn is having a severe effect. Mexico is having a tortilla crisis with the price of tortillas up sixty percent. Brown says that in the United States, “the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that the wholesale price of chicken in 2007 will be 10 percent higher on average than in 2006, the price of a dozen eggs will be up a whopping 21 percent, and milk will be 14 percent higher.” With the thin margins in agriculture, producers are going to have to continue to raise prices or go under.

Before we have a major crisis on our hands and force even more farmers out of business we need to get smart about our ethanol production. The rising price of corn wouldn’t be so bad if we were actually getting something for it. Unfortunately we aren’t. In some estimates it takes energy equivalent to 1.29 gallons of fuel to produce one gallon of ethanol. Worse yet ethanol is a less efficient fuel than gasoline.

There are better choices. Brazil uses sugarcane to produce its ethanol efficiently and technology is on the horizon to efficiently produce cellulosic ethanol from waste products like rice hulls. But in the meantime plants are going up around the country to pull more corn from the food economy and they’re funded by federal and state government subsidies and incentives.

I propose an ethanol boycott. No more corn ethanol production until we get smart about producing it. All government money should be diverted from corn ethanol plants to research on smarter alternatives. In the meantime the best way to reduce fuel consumption is simple conservation—turn off the air conditioner, enjoy the spring air, walk a little more, sell the SUV and buy a bike.

Ragan Sutterfield is a writer and farmer living in the mountains of central Arkansas. After earning a degree in philosophy Ragan spent some time working in Chicago, but decided that he'd rather be back in the rural Arkansas of his childhood. After two years apprenticing with an organic sheep farmer Ragan set out to start his own farm, called Adama Farm (‘Adama’ is the Hebrew word for ‘soil.’) He raises sheep, cattle, chickens, and a very rare breed of pig called the Gloucestershire Old Spot Pig. In all aspects of his farm he tries to use sustainable practices and he experiments constantly with finding better ways to farm at nature's pace.

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Posted by Ragan Sutterfield on Mar 26, 2007 at 10:49 AM
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Comments

Purdue University has a new process that produces 30% more ethanol per bushell + keeps the co-products in the human food chain. Once completed, their plant will be the first plant that has NO smokestack and has no EPA issues. Research the Chen-Xu Method. It answers most of the current ethanol issues.

Posted by:jim beaver |March 27, 2007 10:52 AM

The days of $2.00 corn ( for me) are over. Get use to $3.50-4.00 corn. I will keep on investing in ethanol plants. I raise it, and I'm devoloping a market for my corn by investing in new ethanol plants.
IF you want to raise sugar cane; go right ahead. I work with what I've got. I cannot raise it. I CAN raise corn and that's what I'll do.
I find it a little ironic; when you say this,"a major crisis on our hands and force even more farmers out of business " The fact is; $2.20 corn for the last 20-25 years has driven out far more farmers than $3.62 (today's price) corn today.
There is a revitalization going on in rural America. There is a renewed hope brought about because of renewable fuels like ethanol.
IF you want to boycott, go ahead. I will in turn only produce corn for my ethanol plant; not for export and certainly not for a rail car ride to NY.
Get use to $4.00 or $5.00 or $6.00 corn.
Do not blame the midwest farmer for $4.00 corn. If anything; blame yourself for investing in unregulated hedge funds looking for a quick buck. As of tonight, they own 1.5 billion bu. of corn; twice the projected ending carry-over.
If you wish to change the laws; (i.e. the subsidies for ethanol) go ahead. Remember this; what's to preclude a Chavez style government from overtaking Brazil? The ONLY thing the Rep. & Dem. Congress have in common is their support of renewable fuels. J&S/Illinois

Posted by:J&S/Illinois |March 28, 2007 7:02 AM

Don't kill the messenger, Ethanol from Corn makes sense.
Mash (waste product) makes wonderful livestock feed, so it is not going to waste.

When Corn gets too expensive, ethanol producers will switch to something else to brew up -- like switchgrass. They don't even have to modify the plants (mutch)

Live thru the current spike in
corn prices. Corn producers will be getting rich, and those not producing corn will plant some next year...
It evens out. Unfortunately I feel that $4/bushell sounds about right to me.

In Minnesota, we have been BURNING corn instead of firewood for a while now.

Posted by:lou |July 18, 2007 9:34 AM

Posted by:lou |July 18, 2007 12:35 PM