Awiesemann

Here are some interesting facts that people should know about ethanol production from corn:

1. Less than 2% of the US corn crop is used for human consumption as cereal grain. We use almost as much for pet food as we do for cereal consumption. About 6 to 7% of the corn crop is used to make fructose and sweeteners. (It’s cheaper than sugar, and sugar is surplus)

2. The corn to ethanol industry only uses the starch portion of the kernel. All of the protein, oil, fibers, minerals, vitamins, and other components remain and are available for utilization as food for either human consumption, or for their traditional use as livestock feed. This remaining portion is commonly referred to as DDGS.

3. The world is not short of starch for human nutrition. The need is for proteins and digestible fiber. Soybeans traditionally carry as much higher value in the marketplace because they contain a much higher percentage of proteins and oils, and a much lower percentage of starch.

4. Rice is one high starch cereal grain that is widely consumed by humans directly as a cereal grain. Corn acres and rice acres are not fungible. One is not produced at the expense of the other.

5. Since the early 1970’s, the Consumer Price Index for food, meat, and poultry has risen at a steady rate of 3.5 to 4% per year. (About 4.5% during the 80’s”. That is about the same as the current rate of increase. During that entire 40-year span of time, we have experienced both world hunger and such a consistent surplus of corn that the US government had to invent a variety of different methods to keep the surplus manageable.

6. From 200 to 2005, there were 11 countries in the world in which 46% or more of their populations were listed as undernourished. Those countries received less than one hundredth of one percent of US corn exports. If we broaden that to include the 24 countries in which at least a third of the population is considered undernourished, the number is still less than one tenth of 1% of US corn exports.

7. In the dry mill ethanol industry, less than 2/3rds of the energy in a bushel of corn ends up as a liquid fuel. The remaining Btu’s/calories are in the protein, fiber, oil, etc. (DDGS). When those products are priced by the marketplace, it pays four times as much liquid fuel as it does the food portion.