Guest columnist David H. has been a newspaper editor and reporter for more than 20 years and now works for a large daily in the New York/New Jersey metro area. He also regularly attends a small Mennonite church, where there is frequently a focus on social needs and Christian-service responses.
During a Sunday School presentation I was made aware of another unintended consequence of the short-sighted US effort to produce more ethanol. It seemed like something we might want to discuss at this blog.
The United States is the world’s largest corn producer. According to an industry organization, this country produced nearly 257 million metric tons of corn in 2003. Nearly 20 percent of that crop was exported, making the US by far the world’s largest corn exporter as well (we account for nearly 65 percent of the corn exported around the world).
While 2007 is shaping up to have a larger export than 2006, the world reality is that corn prices are climbing because of weak crops in countries like China and Brazil, but especially because of US demand for corn to meet the exploding demand for ethanol. President Bush has called for the U.S. to be using 35 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2017. A lofty goal considering U.S. ethanol production in 2006 was less than 5 billion gallons. Read the rest of this entry »
12-13-2007 |
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