Get Those Tractors Moving: We Need Ethanol

It’s that time of year where aside from sniffing and sneezing from all the pollen, you are required to see at the local farmers planting their fields with the corn and soybeans. You may notice that there’s a bit more corn being planted this year though. In fact, its a national trend, according to the Louisville Courier Journal.

US Farmers are planting the most corn since World World II thanks to demand for ethanol-based fuel. US farmers are expected to plat 90.5 million acres of corn this year, which is a 15% increase over last year. Indiana will of course be a part of this boom planting 13% more corn this year. As any economist will tell you, when demand is high, so is the price. Farmers will certainly reap the benefits. Usually during harvest season the price of corn starts to drop as there is far more corn available than needed by the buyers. This year, with prices staying relatively steady, farmers should be able to pad their wallets a little easier than in previous years.

Ethanol, if you don’t know, is all the rage because it is mixed with gasoline to reduce the consumption of fuel and, thus reduce air pollution. Per unit volume, Ethanol burns 30% less energy than gasoline. You’re most likely going to be hearing a lot about the fuel additive in the coming months because of the upcoming Iowa Caucus, the early indicator of who is getting nominated as their party’s presidential candidate. Iowa, as you can imagine, is the largest producer of corn, so candidates will be talking about this important topic up to the January 14th caucus.

Ethanol production is not without controversy. Many have said that Ethanol doesn’t really save the consumer any money compared to gasoline because of the cost of producing ethanol. Additionally, the energy savings cancel each other out when you take into account how much energy is spent on producing the ethanol versus the amount of energy used by the product.

photo courtesy of i am jae