Ethanol kills grain food market

[WaxyChicken]

Perhaps. But Ethanol essentially would convert oil industries from drillers into harvesters with the same price problems and a whole new breed of ecological problems (eg - clear cutting for crops, limits to crop rotation to maintain growth quotas, etc...)

[james]

One thing that the "experts" overlook is that using corn for ethanol (fuel), instead of feed for animals, destroys much of the organic matter that would otherwise be incorporated back into the soil. Cow manure is a great addition to most soils, adding both fertility and organic matter. Organic matter feeds soil organisms, improves drainage, improves drought resistance, and holds nutrients in the soil.

[Ryland]

You can only feed so much grain to a cow befor it gets sick, it's not uncommen for cows to be fed enough grain that they get sick and have to be medicated, but it's done because if you feed grain to beef it makes the fat in the meat white insted of yellow, that yellow is from the chlorophyll in green plants that they have eaten and is a sign of nutrents and a healthy animel, the white fat is harder for people to digest but looks better so it's given a higher grade by the USDA, after all cows have 4 stumics so that they can eat grass off hill sides, not corn out of a troff.
but to head back to the topic, alot of people like my self having been waving our arms in the air saying exactly what is just now being said, it's just to bad that I was crazy back then.

[james]

I did not know that ethanol byproducts went for animal feed, but I guess it is not surprising. Still, I think a lot more energy and organic matter would be preserved by feeding the corn directly to people and animals. Ryland, you are right, cows are so much healthier eating grass and hay. I am not against giving them a little grain to increase milk production. For beef, I think its best for human health (and the animal's) to do strictly grass and hay. Also, most chickens need some grain to produce eggs (especially in winter). Isn't the yellow fat from beta carotene(precursor to vit a)? Probably has vitamin a and d as well. I think that it is probably the same thing that is going on with butter from grassfed cows which is super yellow at the right season (no dye needed!). I know that goats milk is whiter than cows milk (especially cream) because they process the beta carotene into vit a.

[bennelson]

I was doing some reading on this and contacted a local ethanol plant.

Suprisingly, one of their big products is, get this, ANIMAL FOOD!

The ethanol plant creates ethanol, CO2 (sold to beverage companies), and then the leftover "distillers grains" go to feeding animals.

It seems that cows and things can actually digest distillers grains far easier than straight corn. It's like you get to use the corn twice!

If bio-fuels really ARE the thing driving up food prices. (Not the freaking expensive diesel fuel used to ship the average americam meal 2000 miles...) I would imagine that it is from trying to run bio-fuels the same way oil producers do. By treating everything as a "source" instead of a "system".

That is to say, they can see the wood, er boards, but not the forest.

We need to start rethinking how we do everything!!!!