With the Moratorium festering, crippling an industry and ruining lives, i once again ponder the motives of the Obama Admin. I think this is more than just catering to the green voting block, i think this is more about political leverage, exerting pressure to get their way on various legislation and decisions, while an industry is held hostage. And its easy for them to do because the region most affected by hurting this industry will not support his reelection regardless. I am confident that everything being equal, if the region affected were the midwest then we would not have a moratorium. To some up their sentiment, "F&*% the oil states and their people." All the while the entire country continues to get "corn-holed" by a well entrenched midwest subsidy. I don't know all the laws involved, but we're basically federally mandated to have some enthanol in our fuel. Because it burns cleaner? Q: What are the exhaust emissions of straight gasoline, and how do they compare to those from gas with ethanol? A: Ethanol is being used to reduce the amounts of tailpipe emissions and therefore plays a role in controlling air pollution. And though ethanol is being promoted by the Environmental Protection Agency as a cleaner-burning fuel choice, its actual impact on the environment is still largely unknown. Gasoline containing as low as 10 percent ethanol can drop fuel mileage in cars, and can also harm engines that use two-cycle oil, such as chainsaws and weed-whackers. However, evidence shows that ethanol evaporates more rapidly than gasoline, thus making it more volatile. The result of this chemical reaction is an increase in compounds that lead to the formation of smog, among other things. Still, scientists disagree on the clean-burning effects of ethanol. Even the process of turning corn into ethanol takes energy that releases carbon monoxide into the atmosphere, even after the EPA ordered factories to install pollution-control equipment in 2002. No, its a great midwest subsidy thats ruining our motors, etc. And how long have they been shoving High Frutose Corn Syrup down American's throat, turning our nation into a bunch of overweight cornfed beef? So that the mid-west can continue to unload their oversupply of corn? I won't get into all the science, but its generally agreed that obesity rates skyrocketed 30+ years ago when HFCS started to be pumped down Americas throat. We've made progress though, and demand for HFCS is down significantly and this has prompted a renaming of HFCS to the simple, natural sounding 'Corn Sugar'. The Feds will allow it regardless of the complex processsing and unique chemical struture of HFCS. Let's get America's corn blowout gushing again, and the midwest rolling in dough. So in light of the moratorium on deepwater oil drilling i'm starting my own moratorium on corn. No more High Fructose Corn Syrup, Corn Sugar, Corn Syrup, Enthanol (as much as possible), or any Corn Product, even cornbred, or even loose corn husk unless its locally produced. I'm asking all of you to join me and spread the word. Our bodies and motors will thank us.
I have no issues with cornflakes or cornbread, I will not be boycotting them. But all farm subsides, including methanol is a waste of money.
I suppose I appreciate the sentiment, being somewhat of a fitness freak, but I ain't givin' up my pecan pie and you can't make pecan pie without Karo syrup. Well, maybe you can, but it's not my momma's pecan pie.
well keep on living under BIG CORNS thumb. Personally, i find it extremely difficult to give up my corn chips, but if i must. you are obviously lost to BIG CORN as you are addicted to flakes of corn topped with high fructose corn syrup. we need to break the back of BIG CORN, if thats even feasible.
I do not eat sugary cereal. Nor do I drink sugary drinks. I avoid both sucrose and fructose normally. I can support reducing fructose in prepared foods. I can support eliminating ethanol subsidies. I will defend taco shells and hush puppies to the death.
I actually feel pretty strongly about this. To me, it is inexcusable that the govn't subsidizes farmers to overproduce corn that is ultimately used to create one of the most unhealthy food products on the planet. And let's not forget how effing nasty HFCS is. I recently had one of those "Mexican" Cokes from Albertson's. You can find them near the other latino foods. They still use real sugar in those Cokes, and they taste 100x better than the crap they sell the Americans.
On a side note, corn has been a good investment and farming subsides are the only one I can endorse as having food sources is better than not. Corn ZC Z0 10 (DEC 2010 Corn) has gone from 370 in July to 496 today.
There's no worry about having food sources. That's why the subsidies, there's much surplus. Without them the bottom would fall out. Rice farmers, for example, used to plant 100-200 acres and if they made 35 barrels per acre that was jam up. I have friends who plant 1000 acres and with the new varieties they are disappointed with yields in the lower 50's (Barrels per acre). The combines (rice harvesters) cut SO much more acreage per day and now cost $300,000.00 new. Rice is pretty much the same price it was in the 60's. A "barrel" of rice is 147 lbs. btw.
Talking to the local bbq czar last week about the absence of small hogs. Said "they" made "them" kill a half million sows last spring to reduce the demand for corn, and hence, keep ethanol pricing lower. You start messing with my bbq and we are gonna have a problem!
