I read an article by Mike Meyers in the Evansville Courier & Press entitled, "Ethanol production may mean less food, higher prices." According to the article, "[t]he number of hungry people worldwide could grow by more than 50% by 2020, as corn, sugar and other food staples are increasingly devoted to making fuel in the United States and abroad...." These economists claim that ethanol production will mean much higher food prices in the U.S. and other developed nations. They say that the better option is for conservation to reduce energy demand. Of course, the corn and ethanol producers dispute these claims. It is a fact, however, that ethanol plants could consume more than 35% of the U.S. corn crop in the next few years. Already, ethanol production has consumed 1.6 billion bushels of corn, between September of 2005 and August of 2006.

What confuses me a bit about this debate is the type of corn being discussed. The article seems a bit misleading in suggesting that the corn being used is the kind people eat--such as corn on the cob. My understanding is that the corn used for ethanol is more of an animal feed-level corn, such that our sweet corn supply would not be jeopardized. Yet, I am curious whether the corn used for ethanol is what is used to make other products we do eat, such as cereal. If that is the case, perhaps we really do have something to worry about if we are planning to devote over one-third of our corn to ethanol in the coming years. Another concern is that if corn prices are sky-high, our cost for poultry, beef, etc. may skyrocket, since these animals eat corn. We also have to think of the other materials being used for ethanol, such as the sugar mentioned in the article. Will we face a situation where so much of farmland or plantations will be devoted to corn and sugarcane, just to meet the ethanol demand, that other crops will suffer? This could be a secondary negative of ethanol production.

Despite all of these downsides, I still feel that ethanol can be perfected and become a real leader in the alternative fuel arena. I would rather face crop growing challenges in the future than what seems to be a scarier situation of increasing oil demand in the world. By now, we know where we are headed if we continue to burn fossil fuels like crazy. We know that with global warming, we will have much bigger issues than higher crop prices or too many farms growing corn. We will have drought-stricken farms that are incapable of meeting human food needs or perhaps, farms that are flooded out by increasingly intense storms and rising tides. Personally, I'd rather deal with the challenges of ethanol if it means less dependence on fossil fuels. Plus, the by-product of ethanol can be used to feed livestock, so there is a bonus for the animals, as well. The main focus right now should be to perfect the production and distribution of ethanol, such that fossil fuels don't need to be depended upon in this process. If we can't get this part right, then ethanol will never be the real alternative fuel that we are looking for.