[Roflmao]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

basically, the idea of using ethanol is to produce a clean, renewable fuel and reduce dependancy on foriegn oil. however, corn ethanol typically requires more oil than it displaces. Its like thinking of a loan as a source of money. you get the bank to give you $5000, but in the end it costs you $5500 to pay back that loan. Great for a quick fix but not sustainable. Same goes for corn based ethanol. Increasing ethanol use isn't making food more expensive, its the price of oil. But still, American farmers are capable of producing corn cheaper than the mexicans can, and thus flood their market with cheap corn. mexican farmers have protested the importation of american corn, they are losing their income because they cannot compete. And this is when you try and limit production, and thus increase price -supply and demand

I keep bringing up oil with the production of food. Pesticides are derived from oil. fertilizers are derived from oil. tractors run on diesel, so do transport trucks. All of this adds up, and unless the food is grown organically, there is an awful lot of oil that goes into growing things like corn. Thats why using cellulose is good. the stock thats used is basically waste from something else. So nothing extra is needed to make it. but its more difficult to make.

Makes sense, basically the production does not exceed the amount needed to produce the product in the first place.