Is Ethanol Ethical?

When talking about any supply and demand issue, it is easy for all of the numbers and statistics to turn into numerical fog. 

The simple fact is that the grand push to “save the earth” has resulted in increased hardship for most of the people on it.

Here is the story of Sam and Tom. 

Sam is a farmer who grows lots of corn. Every year, Tom and his neighbors buys Sam’s corn so they can feed their families.

This year Sam decided he isn’t going to sell his corn for food. Instead he is going to burn it for fuel. Sam doesn’t need to burn it for fuel. He has a large reserve of fuel oil he can use to heat his home, but he has decided that he prefers the smell of burning corn.

This means Tom and his neighbors will have to find his corn somewhere else, only there isn’t anywhere else. This means that the little bit of corn that is available for food is getting very expensive.

Does Sam have a “right” to burn his own corn, even though it is less efficient than burning his oil? Sure. But Sam is being a very bad neighbor by withholding his corn crop from his neighbors.  They are hungry and he is burning the food that they are willing to buy and eat.

Sam’s neighbors start to hate him for making their lives difficult.

As you have probably figured out, Sam is the United States and Tom is everyone else.

Here are a few of those inevitable statistics:

• In the last ten years corn prices have tripled* while corn supply has only increased by about one third.**
• Because there is only so much farm land, other crops, such as wheat and soybeans,  have come under pressure and have similar trends to corn.**
• Over the same period of time world bio-fuel (primarily ethanol) production has also tripled.^
• Price of cereal food grains has tripled.^^ This has an effect of raising meat and dairy prices as well.
• Overall, food prices worldwide have more than doubled in the last ten years.^^

This increase in world food prices is driven primarily by U.S. laws that mandate the use of ethanol. We are burning the world’s food supply in our gas tanks, and frankly, it make us bad neighbors.

pecad.fas.usda.gov

Many times in the Bible we see God’s displeasure with those who would oppress the poor, the hungry, and the helpless.  In my estimation, that kind of oppression is being  placed on the world via these unethical economic policies.

I think this would be a good time for our nation to pause and read Matthew 25:31-46 and examine our behavior. I think some national repentance is in order.

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footnotes

* http://www.agmanager.info/livestock/marketing/graphs/Crops/Corn/U.S.AvgCornPr.htm
**http://www.agmanager.info/livestock/marketing/graphs/Crops/Corn/USTotCornSupply.htm
^ http://www.dupontelastomers.com/autofocus/a8/af8.asp?article=biofuel
^^ http://www.fao.org/worldfoodsituation/wfs-home/foodpricesindex/en/