Biowar I - Burning Food Leads to Hunger

 Science, economics and experience provide strong arguments against corn ethanol as a fuel source.

1.  World food – Removing 50% of U.S. corn from world markets creates world food insecurity, a food cascade, riots, wars, population migration and mass starvation.

2. Abuse of power – Growing food gives the U.S. power and responsibility. We abdicate our responsibility to our fellow world citizens when we burn the food for our convenience that would stabilize world food markets and keep others from starvation.

3. Fossil water – Non-replaceable fossil water supports cities as well as irrigation. Irrigated corn requires 12 tons of fossil or surface  water for each gallon of ethanol.. The water exchange rate is far too high.

4. When aquifers crash, farmers will go bankrupt while they watch their fields revert to tumble weeds. Cities will have to relocate unless pipelines can replace aquifer water.

5. Trade balance – Ethanol was supposed to improve the trade balance by replacing foreign oil imports but fails that objective as the U.S. must import more natural gas. Ethanol threatens to decimate not just grain exports but meat and diary by reducing animal feed supplies and increasing prices.

6. Eflation — ethanol production drives up the cost of all corn inputs, foods made with corn and dairy and meats that depend on corn like cheese and beef.

7. Land – Production of over 120 M corn acres requires too much precious cropland – and with rotation, it requires over 240 M acres. America does not have disposable cropland.

8. Water cost – The U.S. has insufficient water in the right places to sustain the industry. The subsidized cost of irrigation makes irrigation water too expensive for ethanol.

9. Environment degradation – Massive corn production destroys the ecosystem, pollutes well water, rivers and lakes and devastates a large section of the Gulf of Mexico.

10. Low productivity – Ethanol production takes five acres of dedicated corn cropland, a full city block, to support just one car each year. A Hummer operating on E-100 consumes over 33 tons of corn a year.11. Cost – Ethanol costs too much to make and requires unsupportable subsidies. Those subsidies could achieve U.S. energy objectives if used elsewhere.

12. GHG – The ethanol industry pollutes the air with inputs for growing corn, energy used in processing and transportation and burning ethanol in cars.

13. Failed objectives –  Ethanol fails every objective promised by the Bush administration and his appointees at EPA, DOE and USDA.

14. Energy – Ethanol takes as much or more energy to produce as it delivers.

15. Green – Ethanol production requires fossil fuels that are not renewable.

16. Wipes out wildlife – Massive corn production kills animals, birds and fish through habitat  destruction and pollution.

17. Focus on ethanol – Ethanol subsidies preclude sufficient R&D for renewable fuels with higher potential.

18. Biomass waste – Over 97% of the corn plant is waste, not energy. One corn plant yields only 1.5 ounces of gasoline equivalent energy.

19. Not practical – Massive use of resources makes ethanol unfeasible.

20. Unsustainable — resource constrains such as water and weather make the industry unsustainable.