Fill in the blank: Just one short decade ago, about 10 percent of America’s corn went to ethanol. Now, the number is closer to _____ percent….
Fill in the blank: Just one short decade ago, about 10 percent of America’s corn went to ethanol. Now, the number is closer to _____ percent….
And “corn prices have doubled since last year”! This kind of thing does indeed play havoc with farmers’ revenue, but corn-based ethanol programs have been the province of [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_seeking]rent seekers[/url] since the seventies. In the early 80s, some of my musician friends were taken in by a huckster promising vast riches from investing in an ethanol plant in North Dakota. Fortunately, being musicians, everybody was too poor to be able put any money at risk. The whole venture fell apart when the dreamed-of Federal subsidies didn’t come through. Unfortunately, our government’s lack of money has been outstripped by its lack of good sense when it comes to this sort of program.
And we wonder why there is starvation in the world!