Ethanol Is Working
by Tom Buis (Chicago Tribune) Letter to Editor: The recent editorial “A crop shortage should provoke policy changes. Are you listening, Congress?” paints a dire picture that forecasts food shortages and civil unrest. Sounds quite alarmist and serious.
However, to the objective eye, this dire forecast is nothing more than hyperbole and hype. Once again, the critics are trying to tie ethanol production to rising commodity costs. Biofuels are not driving up the price of corn; it is Mother Nature, who handed family farmers the most severe drought in the last fifty years.
It seems it may be the editorial board members who aren’t listening. Just last week, as reported by the Worldwatch Institute, “Global grain production is expected to reach a record high of 2.4 billion tons in 2012, an increase of 1 percent from 2011 levels.” This alone shows that despite a devastating drought by the largest grain producing nation in the world, farmers are producing record global yields. This report alone undercuts the editorial board’s entire premise. READ MORE
