Food vs Fuel Criticisms Illogical and Unreasonable

Food vs fuel criticisms regarding the use of corn to produce ethanol are rampant and occur almost every day.

Here are some examples:

• "While many are worried about filling their tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs" (World Bank President Robert Zoellick, March, '08)


• We are "Starving the poor by pandering to Big Ag" (Bodan Kipling, IBD editorial, Apr 21, "08)


• "Taking food out of needy mouths and causing grocery prices to skyrocket" (IBD Op Ed, Aug. 8, '08)


• "Last year, ethanol used a quarter of the corn crop _ the largest in history_ and it will soak up a third of this year's production." (Sue Kirehhoff, USA Today, Aug. 22, '08)


• "Massive diversion of U.S. grain to fuel cars is raising world food prices." (Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute, March "07)
  
• etc., etc.....

On the surface these statements seem logical and reasonable based on the assumption that corn is being diverted to produce ethanol instead of being used to produce food for people or feed for livestock. The public generally accepts this premise and accepts the sources as very knowledgeable (or at least passing on information from sources that have thoroughly researched the subject). Having little reason to question the statements, the average person would and should be concerned.

In reality the "Food vs Fuel" premise is blatantly misleading. Hears why:

There are several types of corn grown throughout the world. The food that we put on our tables (corn on the cob, caned corn, frozen corn, etc.) is called sweet corn and is never used used to produce ethanol. The popular snack food, pop corn, is a separate type of corn cultivated for that specific purpose and never used to produce ethanol.

However, these two types of corn together represent less than 3% of the total corn grown in the U.S.

The remaining 97% of the corn crop is called field corn. About 364 million tons of field corn (110lbs per person on the planet) is grown by the U.S. This represents 40% of the world's production of corn. This corn is processed in a variety of ways resulting in (or included as an ingredient in) an estimated 3000 products including ethanol. 70% of field corn (about 255 million tons) is processed into livestock feed. About 15% of this is exported.

Fuel instead of food implies that the U.S. and others are using about 25% of the corn harvest to produce ethanol and therefor diverting that corn from being used for food or feed for livestock.

The fact is that food and feed for livestock are byproducts of ethanol production. When corn is used for the production of ethanol the result is ethanol and a variety of byproducts including, but not limited to, food for humans and feed for animals.

Here are some of the details:

• According to the National Corn Growers Association a bushel of corn going through the ethanol production process yields 2.8 gallons of ethanol, 16 pounds of high-protein feed in form of distillers grain, and 17 pounds of carbon dioxide (sold for use in carbonated beverages or dry ice).


• An estimated 17 million tons of Wet Distillers Grain (WDG) will be produced by ethanol plants in the 07-08 marketing year. Approximately 90% of the distillers grain produced (about 15 million tons) will be consumed domestically. The remaining 10% (about 2 million tons) will be converted to Dried Distillers grain (DDG) and exported to Mexico, Ireland, Taiwan, and other foreign countries.
  
• Distillers grains are well suited for beef and dairy animal diets and most of the product is fed to those animals. However, hog and poultry consumption of these grains is increasing.
  
• A single ethanol plant in Minnesota processes 11,750 bushels of corn a day to produce 33,900 gallons of ethanol, and 209,000lbs of high protein feed in the form of distillers grain.

My conclusion so far:

Food vs fuel criticisms are illogical, unreasonable, misleading, and blatant misinformation.

More on corn ethanol, biofuels, and energy rants and raves to follow.