American sugar farmers become players in ethanol
The Midwest is the new Middle East. We have talked about farming before and even mentioned how the farm bill helped ethanol to the tune of billions. In 2008, sugar farmers become players in ethanol. Here is the long, complicated story. First, sugar as an ethanol feedstock in America. You might have heard countries like Brazil use it but it does not make economic sense here. The price comes to about 2.15 compared with 1.50 for corn.
Why? The sugar program controls the price of sugar in part by keeping out imports. That changes January 1st 2008. Thanks to... NAFTA! The North American Free Trade Agreement means cane sugar, sugar beets and all that sweet stuff is coming across the Mexican border. So, free market prevails and the sugar program is dead? Yeah, right. The 2007 farm bill includes a sugar to ethanol program.
Uncle Sam will buy the extra sugar expected to flood the market. Then sell it to companies making ethanol from sugars. So if you have an ethanol-making machine that runs on sugar in the garage, dust it off. Estimates of $300 M a year is coming your way. American sugar farmers are now players in ethanol.
If there are no changes to the Farm Bill anyway. It goes to the Senate after the August recess. We will keep you updated on the debate.
[Source: Washington Post]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
TX CHL Instructor 6:55PM (8/18/2007)
Ethanol is a mediocre fuel. Corn is a lousy feedstock for making ethanol. Sugar is a better feedstock than corn. But ethanol remains a mediocre fuel, no matter how it is produced.
Reply
Stan Cotton 1:20PM (8/19/2007)
Any ethanol derived from corn in unethical. It’s a politcal hoax for
farmers and senators from farm states.
Corn simply is not a justifiable source of fuel for vehicles. Divertingcorn from the food table and animal feed stocks to power cars drives up the
cost of food, costs tax payers for massive farm subsidies, returns very
little energy for the fuel invested to produce it, and harms the
environment. Ethanol from corn is simply “no bloody way” -as the Brits
would say -to solve our energy dependency. www.joinfoil.org
Reply