Corn for fuel not the answer

I would like to add some comments to Mr. Campbell’s observations in Fence Post.

By using corn for fuel we have pushed the cost of corn from a base of $2.40 per bushel to $7.40 per bushel today. This increase is not only seen in corn but it is reflected in the price of beef, pork, eggs, milk, bread and beer.

All companies that raise from cattle to food use corn in some manner. You will see commodity prices continue to increase.

Responding to the government’s mandates to make ethanol out of corn, nearly 40 percent of corn grown in the U.S. is turned into ethanol, driving up the price of corn. We also subsidize ethanol at $1.45 per gallon, so the price we pay at the pump is a lie.

It is claimed that water tables are being lost and topsoil is being lost, and we, instead of helping the world with food production, are putting food in our gas tank.

Do you think when we are paying three and four times what we are paying for food now, and people the world over are hungry, we will all go outside and say, “I saved the environment?”

There is significant research showing that corn ethanol’s carbon footprint isn’t much better than that of oil.

Robert Chmela

Elgin