The key right now is what is being used to make the ethanol. All of our food prices have gone up dramatically since the requirement to use corn for gas. The US Government has driven up all prices by forcing corn production to be used for ethanol. The shortage of corn created, now makes all products which use corn to go up in price. Think of all of those things, and most livestock eat corn for food.
We need a better source for the ethanol. Brazil uses 100% sugar cane to make their ethanol. Flex fuel vehicles there use no imported oil for fuel, they use either pure ethanol or the E85. Sugar cane is far more energy filled than corn, it takes far less sugar cane to make ethanol than it does corn. Our government has screwed up again, surprise surprise, and we pay the price of course.
I'm going to have to disagree with your statement about the price of corn causing the huge increases in our food prices. First off, there is no shortage of corn. Whoever said that is dead wrong. The increased price of corn has caused corn-based foods and other foods such as beef (assuming they're being fed corn) a miniscule 4%. The other thing people don't realize is only the starch from the corn is actually used to produce ethanol...The dried distiller's grain can be sold back to the farmers to use as a high-protien cattle feed, so the corn really isn't being taken away from the cattle, only the starch (carbohydrate), which isn't really necessary for healthy herds anyways, and mostly becomes manure. Think of the ethanol industry creating an Atkins Diet for animals! Cattle do not eat 100% corn either...It's just there as a supplement. Most cattle live on a diet of mainly grass and hay if they're allowed to graze. Farmers that keep their cattle in the stanctions from the time they calf to the time they die aren't what I'd consider real humane people, but they do exist. Those cows get a diet of hay and processed feed, which again is primarly alfalfa and other plant stock with some corn and crude protiens thrown in.
The real problem is the increased transportation costs, farming costs, etc. due to the high price of diesel fuel and other petroleum-derived chemicals such as fertilizer, etc.
Stop over at Planet E85 and browse thru some of the discussions there on the subject, and you'll find lots of factual information and statistics regarding the whole food vs. fuel debate.
The ethanol industry is working on other sources than just corn too...It's at the forefront of their agenda. Here in WI, they're looking at waste cheese whey to convert to ethanol, Coors brewery in Colorado is using waste beer, and cellulosic ethanol made from switchgrass and other biomass is becoming a reality with several ethanol producers right now.
In Brazil, they don't have E85...Their alcohol fuel is 100% hydrous ethanol. Or, basically unrefined moonshine. You can buy hydrous ethanol here in any liquor store under the brand name Everclear. There's still some water content in it. It's 190 proof. Their warm climate allows this fuel to work well, but here, cold start issues are the reason for the added 15% gasoline. Our ethanol is also anhydrous. All the water is refined out of it, and then 2% gasoline is added as a denaturant. If this was not done, it would be considered transportation of liquor.
Even in Brazil's regular gasoline, 28% hydrous ethanol is blended with it, and it works just fine even in older carbureted and non-FFV cars.
