Is Ethanol a good alternative fuel?
I'm not so sure.
For those who think corn comes from a can this would sound like a great solution to our foreign oil dependence but let's briefly examine this 'solution:'
Corn crops are one of the top crops that deplete soil nutrients extracting large amounts of Nitrogen from the soil. If crop rotation isn't utilitized the land can be devastated in just a few years. From my understanding it is the second harshest crop on the soil (first being cotton).
Since the push for Ethanol corn has increased in price to over $4 a bushel that's up 73% (-Link). With this significant surge in price many farmers are opting to raise corn instead of other grains. A recipe for shortage of other grains and greater damage of soil depletion. WIth a shortage of other grains such as wheat simple laws of supply and demand will cause the price of wheat to go up.
There will be several areas in the grocery industry that will be directly affected by this.
-Your box of corn flakes will go up as it will be competing for each bushel of corn by this new competitor.
-Since corn is greatly used in feed for cattle we can anticipate meat and dairy prices to rise.
These are just a few of the heavily impacted areas for this 'solution.' I know that some have claimed the environmental benefits of ethanol being a cleaner burning fuel but it comes at a high cost of soil depletion. From an environmental perspective I cannot see any legitimate reasoning. From an economical perspecitve I'm not convinced it will be 'better.'
What do you think JoeUser? Is this a good alternative or is it just going to make things worse?