Study: Ethanol Mandate Creates 10% Chance of a Corn Price Spike

'food' manufacturers and marketers around the USA blamed all of their significant price increases on the ~$7.50 bushel corn spike in 2008......Why haven't prices gone back down now that corn has been ~$3.50 - 4.00 per bushel for well over a year now????

Because it was not due to corn price. It was due to fuel prices. Their greed has kept the price high. You only hear the trumpet blaming corn price when it is high. They have been silent on the issue now for over a year. Corn is a convenient scapegoat for them to keep the public from looking at the real culprits.

While the USDA puts corn to ethanol slightly above 4 Billion bushels, the question remains "How much corn does the ethanol industry displace"? Since the farmer is willing to pay for half the cost of that bushel of corn back as protein and significantly reduce corn in feeding, isn't this food and fuel.

NOBODY WANTS YOUR STUPID ETHANOL, YOU STUPID CHARITY CASE....GET A REAL JOB INSTEAD OF SUCKING OFF THE TAXPAYER!!!

In 2009, in Indiana, the farmers had a wet Spring which delayed planting, a cool summer which certainly was NOT "ideal" growing conditions and a wet harvest. Yet they still managed to record the second highest yield per acre on record. There is plenty of corn for food and fuel.

Not only did Mr. Levitan miss the fact that despite horrible weather conditions for US farmers we still produced a record corn crop; which contributes to the largest corn carryover of farmer and commercialy stored supply of corn going into the 2010 planting season. This carryover of over 7 billion bushels corn exceeds 1987 which held the previous record. The 7 billion bushels of corn stored on farms and in grain elevators exceeds annual US total corn production of the early 1990's. Despite livestock feeding, exports, record ethanol production and less than desirable weather conditions across the United States; American farmers on fewer acres, using less inputs of fertilizer, chemical and fuel continue to produce an excess supply of grain. I would encourage Mr. Levitan to actually tour farms and our grain infrastructure from Texas thru the upper midwest to gain a greater appreciation of what American farmers can produce and deliver to the market.

"Thanks to federally mandated ethanol standards, food prices could spike dramatically if drought or bad weather shrinks the U.S. corn yield this year." This seems to be the theme of this uninformed article by the 'Chicken Littles' of the environmental movement. There are many good responses posted that point out some of the factual errors. To elaborate on just a couple, the 2008 spike occured after two major grinding operations were forced to shut down due to flooding, causing a momentary tightness in the processed corn market. Uninformed traders (you know the type - the wall street type that trade on sub prime mortgages) caused a spike in the CBT prices (not actual contract sales prices). Many things in our lives are event driven, be they weather or speculator reaction. This spike would have occured regardlass of how we used corn. As it turned out, 2008 corn production broke records. So what is your point?

Secondly, corn is essentially made from a waste product - it is just removed from the corn kernel first. Oils and protiens are 'bi-products' of ethanol production. If corn is fed directly to the cow or hog, most of the starch comes out with the manure as their digestive tracts are not designed to use that much. This is particulary true of ruminant animals like cows. The food or fuel arguement has been discredited many times over, we don't need to hear it again.

Food prices are most strongly affected by energy (oil) prices. According to Oil inteligent Report, an independent oil business journal, the presence of ethanol in the fuel market has mitigated gasoline prices by about 15%. USDA estimates that the price of corn affects food prices by less than 1/2%. Ethanol actually should help to lower food costs.

Please give us articles that are about real issues.

It occurs to me that the price of most food crops in the midwest will skyrocket simultaneously with the onset of the next ice age. What I read seems to be a combination of crystal ball gazing and guessing. Since I have been following the price of corn and the weather, it seems that when the price goes up because of a perceived shortage, the following year more corn is produced followed by a drop in the price. The last perceived shortage was identified only by the media. The price did go up, but corn was being stored on the ground by elevators because of no room at the inn. When researching(?) facts for a column, look at both or all sides of the issue. The price of popcorn at the theatres went way up, even field corn has never been used for popcorn. And by the way there was no shortage of popcorn.

Just people stating the facts, which many don't like because it goes against their interests or does not conform with the disinformatioin that they've been subjected to for so long, some of which stuck. Hard for us to understand what people don't like about a fuel that we can produce annually with the ever-growing abundance of corn we grow when it limits the amount of money we send outside the U.S. to fund wars/terror against us, provides positive economic impact, and is cleaner burning for our envirionment that people don't like. Personally, I attribute it to the disinformation over the years. Learn more and you'll get on board too!