The market will adjust. As the price of corn goes up, more people will find growing corn profitable. It's not like oil, of which there is a limited supply.

Except you are not taking into account the amount of petroleum and petroleum byproducts are used in the growing of corn.

What makes this extra good is that the main agrument for HFCS is (oh, I guess, WAS) SOOOO much cheaper than cane sugar. Tee-hee. Perhaps it's revenge of the cows since they don't naturally eat corn (and it makes them sick). Economically, the numbers do not make a lot of financial sense for ethanol. It's going to be an expensive alternative to oil.

Sure, the market will adjust: UP! More farmers will plant corn, except that corn also takes a much rougher toll on the earth -- needing lots of nitrogen/nitrates and other fertilizers. And farmers who are rotating crops to rest their fields, will be pressured to grow corn, and artificially suplement the minerals and nitorgen even further. The only good news is that the small family farms are finally going to make some money. It also means the ADMs of the world get richer off of government subsidies.

With nearly as many cars as Americans, who ever though using food stuff for our energy needs really wasn't thinking ahead.

Really Kate, with respect and a touch of faceteousness: You thought our politicians of either party would think through the consequences before acting on some slam-dunk, feel-good "green" legislation (since ethonol has a lower energy value and worse carbon output than gasoline)?

Finally Seattle-ite: get your facts straight and stop listening to the PETA propoganda: Cows eat corn, Corn Flakes & corn leaves/stocks, plus they actually love them. They don't get sick on them. Remember the old nusery rhyme, "The sheep are in the meadow, the cows are in the corn"?

Its ironic that we are seeing jumps in corn prices from a system that was set up to mitigate rising corn prices in the '70s.

Dear New Mexi-Cow,

I don’t read PETA literature so I can offer no comment. Cows do like to forage and cows may LOVE to eat corn (I’ll take your word for it), but a grain-fed diet does not love cows back. “Most of the health problems that afflict feedlot cattle can be traced either directly or indirectly to their diet…. The contemporary beef cow is being selected for the ability to eat large quantities of corn and efficiently convert to protein without getting too sick…. Bloat is perhaps the most serious thing that can go wrong with a ruminant on corn. … When the diet contains too much starch and too little roughage, rumination all but stops, and a layer of foamy slime forms in the rumen that can trap the gas. The rumen inflates like a balloon until it presses against the animal’s lungs… Cattle rarely live on feedlot diets for more than150 days… the diet would eventually blow out their livers and kill them…. The unnaturally rich diet of corn … undermines a steer’s health and fattens his flesh in a way that undermines the health of the humans who will eat it.” Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s dilemma. He didn’t make it up; the information came from the feedlot people! It’s substantiated elsewhere (I don’t know what PETA has to say). Cows in a pastured environment would be eating a variety of things that MIGHT include some corn, but I doubt that they would exclusively something that makes them naturally sick.

Seattle-ite:

Thanks for the attribution... now I guess I gotta pick up the book. I have only read Kate's and other's reviews, and am making sweeping, and perhaps inaccurate assumptions.

Sorry for gross exaggeration about PETA (I'd argue Pollen is not unbiased--I mean c'mon, Berkley School of Journalism?--But his *IS* an important voice nonetheless). I do take issue with the whole Slow Food movement, but I also love it. Slow Food is for the rich. You & I can afford to shop Whole Foods (Whole Paycheck?), but I don't see alot of New York Times writers moving out to the country to grow their own food and move us back to the idyllic agrarian society. Philosophically, it's wonderful, but there is not enough farmland within (fill in your ideal distance: 50? 150 miles?) of New York City to support the entire NYC population without factory farming and the mass fertilization, insecticide-swilling & transportation of foodstuffs.

And you have to admit, factory farming has greatly reduced the amount of starvation in our country, and developed countries around the world over the last century. Most of it because of better living through chemistry, and yes, the evil Monsato. Forgive me, but a lot of the Slow Food Movement reminds me of an update to Marie Antoinette's "Let them eat cake": "Why can't the lower classes just shop organic?" Um, it's the cost.

On to my cows argument (the *meat* of the matter?)
I know more ranchers (breeders & growers) than feedlot people, and I know balance is vitally important to the ranchers. Bloat can happen anywhere along the line from eating too much of any one thing (certain kinds of grasses have high carbs and low protein, others the reverse, some are more balanced & some are poisonous). Grass itself is not the answer. Grasslands are dwindling, and corn was an early & imperfect answer to some of the overgrazing issues. The idea is to balance, just as I fight to get my kids to eat veggies and take it easy on the ice cream.

Corn is not necessarily the absolute evil argued about. But then I adore a well made Foie Gras.

I do know that the feedlots where I get my beef from at least pay lip service to a balanced approach. I can see a difference in quality. Packing on fat doesn't make a better steak, it's the intra-muscular fat (marbling) that I require. Fine and flaky, like in beautiful Wagyu/Kobe. When I see blobs of fat & gristle between muscles, while the marbling is lean, then I suspect the cow was rushed.

Just don't ask me to give up corn-fed beef (& I know *YOU* aren't!)

Incidentally: we humans don't digest corn so well either. The Mayans would squeeze lime on the corn (& rub with red chile powder). The acid in the lime lets our bodies break down the outer shell of the kernel -- and kept the Mayans from dying of starvation. Plus it's delicious!

Re: Little Boy Blue, the nursery rhyme cited above, one must remember that it is of English origin. Thus, the reference to "corn" is actually to wheat, not to maize.