Bio-Fuel Increases Price of Ice Cream
Keith_Indy on Jul 16 2007 at 3:14 pm | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Economics, Environment, Keith's Page, Technology
The increase in the amount of bio-fuel production, specifically ethanol, is driving up the costs of anything that feeds or is produced with grain. This is leading to higher prices for milk, ice cream, cereal, and a host of other staples. The UN is also having a harder time buying grain to feed the hungry in Africa.
Well, good think I don’t have much a of a sweet tooth anymore…
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/united_states/article2080599.ece
What’s the connection between ethanol, the biofuel produced from corn, and a cherry vanilla ice-cream?
Answer: the first is responsible for pushing up the price of the other.
This month, the price of milk in the United States surged to a near-record in part because of the increasing costs of feeding a dairy herd. The corn feed used to feed cattle has almost doubled in price in a year as demand has grown for the grain to produce ethanol.
Currently, because government intervention has driven up demand, bio-fuel producers are running with whatever is easiest to find supply for. The biggest problem in America right now is the grains we are using are the least efficient plants to use for ethanol production. We need more research to determine what is best source of renewable plant life for our needs.
In fact, research already shows that “there’s not enough corn available to make it a viable long-term source.”
UPDATE: Instapundit links to an article about making CELLULOSIC ETHANOL in Georgia. “Liquid pork,” probably an apt description of the politics involved in the ethanol industry.
And why should this be of interest for us…
Cellulosic ethanol can contain up to 16 times more energy than is required to create it! If that doesn’t sound ridiculously impressive, consider that gasoline contains only 5 times more energy than was required to create it and corn ethanol is totally lame, containing only 1.3 times the energy required to create it.
Oh, and it should bring the cost of ice cream, and milk, etc, back down, since we wont be using food crops as an alternative to foreign oil…
Sphere: Related Content2 Responses to “Bio-Fuel Increases Price of Ice Cream”
Trackback URI | Comments RSS
Wow, is there a plant we could legalize that might maximize our cellulose production?
yours/
peter.
Peter,
Plus all the new trade with Mexico might lessen the tide of illegal immigrants.