Our food supply depends to a large extent on corn. We feed corn to cattle and cows to provide meat on the table and milk in our glass. It is fed to chickens to provide a staple in our diet and eggs for our morning breakfast. Corn is used to make fructose which is a basic ingredient used to satisfy our "sweet tooth". And, unfortunately, it is now used as a tool by global warming zealots who want to change our way of life.
The growing craze to adapt ethanol to a transportation fuel has such far reaching consequences that our and the entire world's economy, and all our food sources, are disastrously affected.
We have been warned by economists that the our growing dependence on corn will cause soaring prices for food if the nation suffers a drought in the Midwest but even now under "normal" conditions the costs of many foods have increased greatly just because of the present of ethanol binge. At the current rate of corn usage for nonfood purposes we can see eggs at well over $4.00 a dozen and meat prices skyrocketing.
Not much different than everything else I've talked about in this vein except for one thing. This article does bring up the point of a drought or other weather calamity affecting the corn crop and how it might then affect other things. Something I hadn't considered yet. If I remember my La Nina information right, with a full fledged La Nina going on now the corn belt could be drier than normal this year causing corn supply disruptions. Are you ready for food prices to even soar more?
The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics. Thomas Sowell
Less than two years ago we refused to pay over $200 dollars a ton for grain for the dairy cows...now we are just lucky it hasn't hit $300/ton yet. It will.
(This is bad enough but milk prices dropped $4 per hundredweight this month.)
It is insane and is going to cause a massive crash. Plus my car runs so bad now because there is ethanol in all the gas around here I can barely get it over to the college and back without it stalling on all the hills. Makes me mad as heck
Cattle are a herbivore that don't specialize in eating one type of plant matter. I have personally seen cattle eat by choice, grains, grass, leaves and wood. So, cattle can be fed corn and still be a herbivore since corn is *plant matter*.
The American public over the years has come to appreciate the taste of grain fed beef over grass fed beef. My great grandfather almost 100 years ago would ship his cattle to Omaha where they would be sold to some feedlot, fed grain, before they were slaughtered. It's been done this way for a very long time.
Now with the price of grain going up, times might be changing. You might see the cattle spend more time on grass before going to slaughter but I bet they will still spend a little time in a feedlot, eating grain, putting on the finish Americans and Japanese, and Koreans like to see.
The health benefits of grass fed beef over grain fed beef are minimal. The amount of "good fats" are a little higher in grass fed beef but that's the only difference.
You claim I am not raising a healthy product for the American people. Without coming out and seeing my operation how can you say that? What am I doing that makes my product unhealthy?
I want to see the most food raised for people at the most reasonable price that it can be done for. If we tried to grass feed all our beef, beef prices would be 3-4 times higher since we would not be able to raise the numbers we do now. Then this valuable supply of protein would be priced out of the market for many people in, our society. How is that healthy for people?
If a person like you wants to only buy grass fed beef, more power to them. I've seen the price of grass fed beef and will buy the grain fed because it is cheaper. That is a choice I make just like you make a choice. Aren't we all free to do that?
I am raising a healthy protein product for people in this world to eat at a reasonable price. It is the right thing to do.
In our "warm up" lot, customers are not feeding as much corn as in past years but they are using some and the cattle are growing and gaining.
But I agree that corn based ethanol is not an economical fuel.