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Originally Posted by shovel
I don't understand why so many people get caught up on the incidental edibility of the crop most commonly associated with ethanol production. If you put the exact same effort and land into growing an inedible grass for ethanol, would that bother you? Why is it a problem that the crop happens to be edible? Does it bother you to wash your car with water when you could drink water too? Today I'm going to use citric acid to clean some aluminum truss, does that bother you because citric acid is a food ingredient?
As has been discussed in other threads on the topic, corn ethanol production occurs side-by-side with animal feed production. The animal feed, various grades of de-starched and de-sugared corn meal and mash is rich in nutrients and protein, ships and stores and dispenses more easily than whole corn and helps keep the animals healthier than whole corn. That feed has become an important and massive part of the livestock supply chain, enough that we can consider ethanol a byproduct of feed manufacture with equal emphasis.
It's not food or fuel, it's food and fuel. In another thread I dissected how much money that saves every one of us annually, net, after food costs are considered.
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If dried distillers grain (DDG)and the other "food" by-products of ethanol production is so much healthier than whole corn, why isn't it being sold as human food and being incorporated into breakfast cereals and other food items that normally contain corn. Why is it considered fine for animals, but not for people? Everything I have read about DDG in livestock feed discusses how much you can add to livestock rations (about 20 to 30%) before you start seeing a negative effect on growth. That it is an inexpensive, readily available alternative to corn, but is not a direct replacement for it.
DDG might be true for large scale livestock producers, but doesn't help the guy with a few head of cattle or who keeps a small flock of chickens for eggs who sees the price of corn and corn containing feed keep going up at the local Tractor Supply.
Also it doesn't address the problem of food shortages, riots, urban unrest, and government overthrows in 3rd world countries being caused by the ever increasing price of corn due to the ever increasing demand of corn for ethanol production. The increasing availability of dried distiller's grain for livestock feed in this country doesn't help the situation in the 3rd world for the guy who can rarely, if ever, afford meat and is increasingly unable to afford the corn to feed his family.