Ellis

Corn Ethanol Can Never Replace Meaningful Quantities of Motor Fuel

User 168889 & Shendandoah make very accurate points. The ethanol industry was a blimp in 1980 and today it keeps over $16 billion in the USA and does not go to a country that hates us. Benson totally ignore technology and genetics. In 2005 Corn hit a low of $1.46 per Bushell, at that time how much motivation was there for the seed companies to greatly increase the yields? For over 25 years, corn prices have always been historicaly low yet at the same time the yeilds have increased. The yields have increased not because there has been a great demand for more corn, but a great demand to resist disease and drought. Now that we have a strong demand for energy, the yields will start to drastically increase. I will bet today, that within 2 years we will have added 20 bushels per acre. I will alos bet that over the next 10 years the whole process of corn and ethanol will be a lot different than today and the differences will blow away all lies and negativity about the future of this product. Scott also failed to mention that the corn plant just has its genome sequence mapped. It is only the 3rd plant to have this done. This map is the nuts and bolts on how the plant works and opens the door to numerous developments that were never needed with cheap corn. Last, with genetics, the countires that can not or struggle to produce corn will be able to. In the very near future, Africa is going to be able to feed themselves, as long as they can get along and form democratic governments.