The great corn rush

I hope against all hope that all this new corn is being grown in a sustainable manner, but I so doubt it. I bet they're fertilizing it (using petroleum byproducts), using pesticides to protect it, I bet it's GM, and I bet it's irrigated. Dust bowl 2030, baby! Humans just don't learn, do we? Already, corn prices are leading to increases in the prices of tortillas in Mexico that poor can't afford. Hey, let's burn food to drive our cars! What, you have a problem with that? Well, we could invade Iran for more oil, or burn food- what do you want?

"“Producing 35 billion gallons of ethanol a year would require putting an additional 129,000 square miles of farmland — an area the size of Kansas and Iowa — into corn production, which is not very likely,” said Philip E. Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust.

Increased demand for corn from ethanol is already straining supplies and pushing prices higher. Corn futures prices recently topped $4 a bushel, the highest price in a decade, raising production costs for livestock producers. The Department of Agriculture earlier this month forecast that by the time this year’s harvest is ready in August, corn in storage will have dwindled to a three-week supply — the lowest level in a decade." LINK