|
Eastern Iowa | I saw that segment as well and boy was he hard on the ethanol industry. The scary thing is thinking about just how many people watch shows like that and how misinformed a lot of people are becoming about ethanol. They make it out to be this out of control industry that is going to cause higher food prices as well as mass starvation. Appears to me that farmers are getting bashed pretty good buy some big voices on TV and radio. Can us farmers continue to sit back and laugh at some of the various comments and false statements thrown out into the media or is it a matter of time till the general public truely believes that there is more "bad" in that gallon of ethanol than there is "good"? Seems that the "dum ole farmer" needs a big voice of our own to defend ourselves. I'm not proclaiming that ethanol is our energy savior but it does help create a bit more demand for a traditionally cheap product that we've produced for many many years. Elwynn Taylor made a good point at the last seminar I saw of his and I'm sure some on here have heard it as well. I know I won't quote him perfectly because to many weeks have passed for my (short term.... long term, hmmm one of the two) to remember but here it goes. He said that when he was younger, the farm that he grew up on had a number of horses (just as many farms in that day did) and that the horses were used to help raise their crops in an assortment of different ways on the farm. He also mentioned that 50%, maybe it was 67%, of the crops that they raised went toward "fueling" their horses. His point was that crops were used then as fuel then and now today we see the same thing happening again. From what I recall, he didn't seem to worked up about it causing mass starvation of any sort. I don't recall what corn yields were back in the day when Elwynn was a young boy on his parents farm but haven't they gone up a bit since then? Won't hybrids continue to improve and yields continue to climb? Maybe we'll be lucky enough to be growing 300 bu corn five years down the road and flood the world with $2.00 corn again and everyone will once again be happy. | |
|
Glenn Beck yesterday
