Corn ethanol

The old adage that even a broken clock is right twice a day is the only way to explain the corn ethanol program. After many studies it is now known that using ethanol in gasoline is worse for the environment than just using gasoline straight. This is in addition to the idea of taking large quantities of corn out of the food supply. The US produces about 380 million tons of corn and 40% or 152 million tons is used for ethanol production. Now here is the luck part. Because corn ethanol increased the demand for corn the corn acreage increased by 8.7%. With the food grains coming from Russia and Ukraine under stress the world's food supply is threatened and if the ethanol corn is converted to human consumption it could save many lives. This leaves the 200 ethanol plants sitting idle and more likely shut down permanently if food for humans takes precedent.