conflux
is corn a food or fuel?
even just a few years ago it would have been inconceivable to imagine that people would be wondering if corn is food or fuel. but with nearly 80 ethanol plants under construction and estimates that our increased, er, appetite for the fuel could use as much as half of america's corn crop next year it's suddenly become a timely question.
think it's an academic point? tell that to the mexican poor hit by the 400 per cent increase in tortilla prices fueled, ahem, by demand for corn-based ethanol.
not entirely coincidentally, new research sponsored by bp shows that the "energy balance" of producing ethanol is essentially neutral which means that converting corn into ethanol doesn't necessarily use more fossil energy than the energy contained in the ethanol produced.
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