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I am the office ethanol critic with LJ Urban. To sum it up, I have read in multiple places that it requires about one gallon of gasoline to produce one gallon of ethanol. This is spent mostly in corn production i.e. Plowing, pesticides, processing, trucking, and actual production of the final product.

The other day, I read first-hand evidence of yet another negative bi-product of the Ethanol Boom. The 11/04/06 Wall Street Journal cover story article titled, “Corn is Booming as Ethanol Heats Up” states that the price of corn per bushel is nearly a dollar above it’s $2 mark currently. This increase in the cost of corn is beginning to ripple through the entire world economy. American farmers are paying more for livestock feed, consumers are beginning to see cost increases in everything from corn flakes to Coke. U.S. Farmers planted their third biggest corn crop ever last year. “But the ethanol industry is still so profitable, thanks in part to federal tax incentives and state mandates, that analysts are beginning to calculate that it would take corn prices of $4 a bushel to quell the industry’s demand.”

This kind of high price could inspire farmers to convert pastures into cornfields and out of existing crops thus further propagating the foodstuffs increase in price globally. This would not be all bad for the economy because it would increase sales of tractors and equipment, right? I think ADM and John Deere have a lot more influence over this so-called “Green Shift” than most Americans are aware of.

Micah