Re: SC39

http://www.newwest.net/index.php/city/article/ethanol_binge_sends_corn_prices_skyward/C94/L94/

‘Ethanol Binge’ Hikes Corn Prices

Last week US BioEnergy had a ground-breaking ceremony at a new ethanol plant in Dyersville, Iowa, bringing to 78 the number of ethanol plants under construction, with 113 already operating. And that’s not good news for the ranchers and poultry farmers of the Rocky Mountain West.

Amid the “ethaphoria” currently gripping agribusiness and certain parts of the nation’s capital, a growing chorus of voices is pointing out an unintended consequence on the reliance on corn and grains as the raw material for ethanol production: prices for feed for livestock are rising, sending prices at grocery stores up as well.

“This ethanol binge is insane,” Paul Hitch, president-elect of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Assn., told BusinessWeek.

Corn prices have doubled over the last year, reports the Earth Policy Institute, while wheat futures are trading at their highest level in 10 years. The diversion of corn to fuel ethanol uses “is creating unintended consequences throughout the global food chain,” a Bloomberg analysis finds – not to mention increased use of pesticides and fossil fuels to grow all that corn. Meanwhile, the U.S. Congress has slapped a 54-cents-per-gallon tarrif on ethanol from Brazil..............