Corn ethanol is a farm subsidy. It gets greenwashed as something positive because plant=natural=good.

It’s not great for the environment, but it keeps a food surplus available in crisis instantly by just turning off the ethanol production facilities

True. But it might be cheaper to store the corn for a year and then dispose of it, replace it with fresh corn.

> But it might be cheaper to store the corn for a year and then dispose of it, replace it with fresh corn.

I don't think any food crisis scenario in the US involves a road bump that spans a single year and doesn't disrupt existing crops.

If you are disposing of the corn anyway, why not turn it into Ethanol and then burn it as car fuel?

The only real issue with Ethanol IMO is that corn Ethanol is preventing progress in advanced synthesis made out of, ex: switchgrass cellulose. There are better sources of ethanol if we invest into them.

"If you are disposing of the corn anyway, why not turn it into Ethanol and then burn it as car fuel?"

It costs more money and has a higher carbon footprint than simply using gasoline.

More money yes.

The carbon footprint thing doesn't past review of the overall literature. There's one outspoken guy who has to bend over backwards and publishes media articles rather than keeping things academic who tries to make the public believe what you say, but I'm not convinced he's arguing in any serious manner.

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They are used for all sorts of things we eat, corn nuts, hominy, grits, corn meal/flour and all the things those are used in. Personally, I find it far more palatable than sweet corn and it is far more useful/versitile/nutritious than sweet corn; it is a traditional cereal grain and can be used for all those things we use wheat and rye for.

Surely you can make cornstarch from it, and that problem only lasts a year.

>corn-derived ethanol to our gasoline

Stupidest possible thing to do with food. Especially since in some operations you put in more diesel than take ethanol out.

It's my understanding that corn produces the most (edible) calories per square metre of any of our farmed plants

edit: Looked it up - Rice has the highest number of calories per square metre of farmland, just that it requires marshy/swamp land to grow.

There are many varietals of rice. Most do not grow in marsh land. Farmers often do flood the fields at the beginning of a rice growing season in order to drown out any competing plants. Flooding is not necessary though. Rice will grow with normal irrigation.

Yes. Rice tolerated flooding better than weeds so it is used as a cheap and easy weed control. Also some places grow fish alongside rice in the same land, getting some extra pest control and fertilizer for free.