The Ethanol Papers - Paperturn manuscript - Flipbook - Page 320
So, to use the rat-rat race analogy, you came up with a new way to cast the
same old worn-out story. Instead of corn flakes, which you agree that the world
doesn’t eat like us Americans, you substitute corn meal for corn flakes. However, you really didn’t do your homework very well.
To begin with, corn meal is used for many other things than feeding starving
people around the world. Corn meal is used as a plant fungicide, for weed prevention, insect repellant and to protect wooden floors. So why not blame the
rise in corn meal prices on people who wish to use a non-chemical solution to
their garden and pest problems? What, chemical fertilizers and insecticides are
not good enough?
Why not be critical of people who like to dance on wooden floors? You mean
it’s okay for a family in Somalia to starve just because some ballroom in New
York doesn’t want to have to refinish their wood floor so often?
In addition, corn meal is used by seafood chefs as a simple, low-cost way to
fatten clams and mussels before cooking them in any number of favorite recipes. Why not blame seafood lovers and restaurants for causing a run up of corn
prices and shortages? I’ll bet that there are far more people who regularly eat
clams and mussels than use ethanol.
Expanding on this chain of thought, let’s look at another significant use of corn:
as a sweetener in soft drinks, candy and other snacks. Here we are, in the midst
of what many people believe is a fast-food-obesity epidemic and you’re blaming
ethanol for too much use of corn. Wouldn’t it be better for everyone concerned
if you, a degreed fellow at a prestigious think tank, made the argument that we
shouldn’t be eating so much junk food? It would be better for the health of nonstarving humans, while leaving more “corn” for the starving humans.
Next, since even the worst scenarios merely depict a situation in which corn
supplies will only be low until the next harvest, not exhausted, then there isn’t
really any reason for corn prices to rise…except for one reason, and one reason
only: commodity speculators. And, as I know that even you must know, it was
due to commodity speculators that there was the previous rise in corn prices
that had been errantly blamed on ethanol production.
However, most importantly, your blame on ethanol production for the real or
imagined starvation of peoples around the world has absolutely nothing to do
with corn ethanol production and use, but on the massive wheat failures in Russia and China. If either or both Russia and China had improved their farming
