OT: More Reasons to avoid Biofuels

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Larry Gamble

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To continue my rant about reasons E85 is purely "the devil's holy water"...



This year about a million fewer acres of corn will be grown. With the government's ethanol mandate, BOHICA folks because we're about to get royally hosed on every economic front.



Corn (or maize) is more expensive to grow than soybeans with the price per bushel of the beans increasing, more farmers are switching to beans and a million few acres of corn was planted this year. Plus, the storms that hit the midwest will have an impact. The amount of destroyed acrage is still being tallied.



Market Watch is reporting $10 corn is a possibility this fall because the the midwest storms a couple weeks ago. That kind of price is definately going to hurt everyone from milk producers to beef, pork and poultry producers which will also hurt us as consumers.



This is also hitting the news wires now...



WORLD BANK SAYS BIOFUELS CAUSING FOOD PRICES TO INCREASE



LONDON (AFP) - Biofuels have caused world food prices to increase by 75 percent, according to the findings of an unpublished World Bank report published in The Guardian newspaper on Friday.



The daily said the report was finished in April but was not published to avoid embarrassing the US government, which has claimed plant-derived fuels have pushed up prices by only three percent.



Biofuels, which supporters claim are a "greener" alternative to using fossil fuel and cut greenhouse gas emissions, and rising food prices will be on the agenda when G8 leaders meet in Japan next week for their annual summit.



The report's author, a senior World Bank economist, assessed that contrary to claims by US President George W. Bush, increased demand from India and China has not been the cause of rising food prices.



"Rapid income growth in developing countries has not led to large increases in global grain consumption and was not a major factor responsible for the large price increases," the report said.



Droughts in Australia have also not had a significant impact, it added. Instead, European and US drives for greater use of biofuels has had the biggest effect.



The European Union has mooted using biofuels for up to 10 percent of all transport fuels by 2020 as part of an increase in use of renewable energy.



All petrol and diesel in Britain has had to include a biofuels component of at least 2.5 percent since April this year.



"Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have declined appreciably and price increases due to other factors would have been moderate," the report said.



It added that the drive for biofuels has distorted food markets by diverting grain away from food for fuel, encouraging farmers to set aside land for its production, and sparked financial speculation on grains.



But Brazil's transformation of sugar cane into fuel has not had such a dramatic impact, the report said.



"The basket of food prices examined in the study rose by 140 percent between 2002 and this February," The Guardian said.



"The report estimates that higher energy and fertiliser prices accounted for an increase of only 15 percent, while biofuels have been responsible for a 75 percent jump over that period."







 
$10? $10 a what, a head, a bushel, an acre? Plus, what is it now because it isn't free. That tells us nothing without knowing what it was before.



Now, if you said it was $6 a bushel now and you're saying it will be $10 a bushel in the future and that it's already gone up 250% in the last few years you'd be telling us something.



Maybe they should stop growing tobacco in order to plant soybeans for biofuel. Then we'd eliminate smoking at the same time, but then we'd lose all that cigarette tax.
 
I figured most folks could Google "corn prices" if they didn't already know the value and measure. Sorry, I didn't realize a spoon was needed with that post.



On Thursday, corn reached $6 per bushel and soybeans hit $16.31. In 1981, corn was $2.99 a bushel and soybeans were $7.03. Both are marketed per bushel. For comparison, corn was only $2.36 in 2006 and soybeans were $5.75.



In March a Minnesota company that uses soybeans to make biodiesel had to shut down when beans hit $13 a bushel.



Yeah, we stop growing tobacco and all the social programs that depend on tobacco tax revenue will bankrupt the "United Welfare State of America" but that is separate rant that I won't start now.















 
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It's not a spoon, but the only way you're going to convince skeptics is if you provide all the details in such a way they can't discount it.



Now, you say that in 1981 corn was $2.99 a bushel, if you adjust for CPI then corn should be $7.12 a bushel today. Going strictly by CPI we've been underpaying for things like corn and gas for years. Perhaps if we had the adjustments to the prices gradually over the years instead of all at once we'd complain less.



Don't take my comments to mean I don't agree with you, I'm just bringing more points to light so that others can see the facts as well.



Here's the spoon, CPI = Consumer Price Index
 
Well said R1ch999999, I've been aware of this too, but with this said the sting of $4 fuel is very painful, down right terrible.

CHRIS
 
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The reason I didn't use CPI is because when strictly using that yardstick, there are certain effeciencies in prduction techinques that aren't accounted for. It's assuming that the way it was done then is the way it's still done today.



In 1950, my grandfather used a two row planter pulled by a mule to plant. Meaning you could plant two rows of corn or soybeans or cotton in one pass across the land. In that year, our farm had 52 mules and two "modern" 30 horse power (hp) tractors. 1980, we had zero mules and seven modern tractors ranging from 30hp to 105hp. We pulled four row planters and a six row was the latest and greatest. Six and eight row machines were the standard but today, there are 12 and 16 row planters with larger ones on the drawing boards.



It all makes for effeciencies that didn't exist "back then."



 

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