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Originally posted by Nathans_Dad
From what I understand, the people against ethanol argue that if you include the energy costs involved in growing and harvesting the corn into the equation along with the energy needed to actually produce the ethanol, then it takes more fossil fuel to produce the ethanol than you get out.
Another interesting point which was made on NPR this morning is that the corn which would go towards ethanol production is currently sold cheaply as animal feed. Therefore, if we start making more ethanol the price of things like pork and beef will increase.
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Well at first, yes. The trucks that transport the corn, the driers that take moisture out of the corn, etc are NOW using fossil fuels, but that can change. If those trucks and driers used ethanols then the 'dependency' on fossil fuels for production go way down.
Economics drive lots of decisions. But it is a short term glitch. When crop prices rise, farmers switch their production to more profitable crops. We can grow corn. Just because we are growing ginseng there now doesn't mean it can't/won't be corn next year. These are short term economic hurdles.