Issues in Contemporary Agriculture: Fuel

Three New Studies Debate Corn-Based Ethanol

New studies this week on the efficiency and food supply effects of corn-based ethanol came to completely different conclusions.

Two studies issued by the Illinois Corn Growers Association concluded that corn-based ethanol production leaves a smaller carbon footprint than gasoline and has substantial room for growth without affecting the corn supply to the food and feed sectors.

"We found conclusively that the global warming impact of the modern ethanol plant is 40 percent lower than gasoline," said Steffen Mueller, principal research economist at the University of Illinois at Chicago's Energy Resources Center, who authored one of the studies for ICGA. He noted his data showed a greater reduction in global warming impact than numbers currently being used in the public debate on this topic.

The second ICGA study, authored by Ross Korves, economic policy analyst at ProExporter Network, predicted corn yields would increase to 289 bushels per acre over the next two decades from the current 155 bushels per acre, which would provide sufficient corn to increase ethanol production to 33 billion gallons annually by 2030 from the 7.1 billion gallons produced last year.

Both studies can be viewed here.

A third study, conducted by Dennis Avery, a senior fellow and director of the Center for Global Food Issues at the Hudson Institute for Competitive Enterprise Institute, said ethanol has made the world use more corn than it can sustainably produce, creating massive food price hikes.

Avery said high food prices are here to stay for as long as food continues to be turned into fuel, which he said is benefiting corn farmers while hurting livestock farmers and not making a dent in oil prices.

"Were we to double corn yields, we still would not have enough room for corn ethanol, because global food and feed demand will double again by 2040," Avery wrote in his study, titled, "The Massive Food and Land Costs of U.S. Corn Ethanol."

The study can be viewed here.

Meatingplace.com, October 31, 2008