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Pros And Cons Of Ethanol Mandate

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One of the main arguments against the ethanol mandate, is that it drives up food prices. This is possible by two methods. First, the RFS ethanol mandate increases the demand for corn, which increases the price of corn. Due to the higher prices farmers allot more of their land to grow corn due to the rising prices, which lowers the supply of other crops raising the prices of those crops. Third, farmers who use corn and grain for feed for their animals will have to pay these higher prices, which will increase prices of their products. Several studies have confirmed that the ethanol mandate has increased the demand and price of corn (Lee, 2015). Corn is used as a sweetener, animal feed, food, and ethanol. Lee and Maniloff in their paper The …show more content…

In 2005, crude oil prices started slowly creeping up and in the end of 2007, crude prices skyrocketed to over $90/barrel. From figure 4, it is clear that quite often, the price of crude, maize (corn), and wheat follow similar trends. Beef does not appear to follow the same trend as the others, and may even have an inverse relationship. Lee and Maniloff, show that these crop prices have been correlated in the past and that the ethanol mandate exacerbates any exogenous shock from corn volatility into other crops. 6. Conclusion: Long before there were any subsidies, ethanol was used as a fuel. The addition of the subsidies and RFS mandate have forced the use of ethanol. The mandate has not had significant positive effects on U.S. energy security and has had little to no impact on fuel prices. It also has had negative effects on the U.S. by raising food price volatility. It does not appear that the mandate is having the intended effects, and in fact, may be having more negative effects than anticipated. Perhaps, the intended environmental effects outweigh the need for energy security. However, the food volatility can have very far reaching effects across the economy. It would be interesting to further research the cost/benefit adding in any environmental

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Nowadays, there are many corporations contribute from corn a lot, which provides such a countless benefits for them. The factories will apply various aspects on corn in order to amply utilizing it. Pollan points that, “They provide the pesticide and fertilizer to the farmers; operate most of America’s grain elevators; broker and ship most of the

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When the documentary Food Inc. was released in 2008 it was groundbreaking. It pulled back the curtain and revealed the sometimes heinous inner workings of the agriculture and food producing sector in the United States. One of the sub-industries it examined was large-scale agriculture, specifically corn. The movie ascertains that even though wheat production per acre has increased from 20 to 200, 30% of the United States land base is utilized for corn production (1). One of the chief reasons for this gross overuse of land for corn production; the large amounts of the federal budget that are dedicated to corn production.

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Without subsidies, prices and supply go on its natural course. In addition, those who grow the corn and soy have more benefits than those who are not protected under

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More supply calls for more demand which helps boost the economy and keep it steady. Before becoming a locavore, people need to look deeper into details like the carbon footprint of food and realize that no matter where it comes from, it will still have

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It makes us less dependent on ethanol crops. When the United States document decided to add ethanol to gasoline, more farmers started to grow corn but the price for this crop and its products increased. But if more people use pure fuel, we become less dependent on ethanol crops, and hopefully this will bring down the price of corn. List of Cons of Ethanol Free Gas 1. It has more harmful

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After a long debate, weighing the pros and cons on whether the government or the market should be able to set prices, have finally came to a conclusion. To ensure that we have the most efficient economy we have decided to allow the government to set prices on gasoline. With a price ceiling on gas it will be equal for everyone. Setting the ceiling price lower than the equilibrium will allow everyone to be able to obtain a share of gas because the price will be low. Because we believe in equality and not favoring one group of people over the other, this is why we have decided to set the gas at price that will be affordable for everyone.

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The article, points out that the retailers, like supermarkets, and manufacturers dominate what the farmers grow, leaving them with less control. With restructuring the way farmers produce food; this forced them to think more independently to survive long-term in a competitive market for higher productivity. They were forced to trade quality for quantity. In doing so, farmers’ higher productivity measures meant that they would use more fossil fuels adding greenhouse gases into our atmosphere contributing to climate change. According to the article, the mechanization of agriculture has lead to our food being filled with more fats, oils, high fructose corn syrup, and other artificial sweeteners that contribute to diabetes and obesity.

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US government encouraged Third World countries to planted more biofuels crops in their limited cultivated land but increased world corn prices (Kenny, 2007). In addition, the US government also signed an agreement with Brazil to encourage and develop biofuels project which attracted other poor countries in Asia and Africa (Kenny, 2007). However, there are 40% of the earth are used by agriculture and 1/3 of them are need to be transferred into biofuels production. More biofuels using, more hunger occur. Kenny (2007) argues that biofuels could not help to improve global warming but the culprit of it.

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This is unfavorable for Monsanto because farmers will be less likely to purchase expensive seeds next season, as their profit from the last season was lower. In 2016, corn and soybean seed prices are expected to fall “8% and 5% respectively” and in 2017, fall “10% and 10% respectively” as a result of the surplus crop (Blue Pacific Partners, 2014). Monsanto, however, must increase seed prices in order to keep their market value high and shareholders happy. Typically, “a company with strong pricing power can grow its gross margins over time”, but because Monsanto “achieved real volume growth in corn seeds”, it has no pricing

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Using the entire 300 million acres of U.S. cropland for corn-based ethanol production would meet about 15 percent of the demand”(James and Powell). This means that biofuels cannot supply the United States. Due to how inefficient biofuels are means that they are wasting food. Also if the United States is putting so much time, money and effort into making biofuels work instead of searching for more alternatives than it will end up hurting the United States because the more time they put into biofuel the more energy is wasted in the cycle. Therefore biofuels should be banned in the United States Because ethanol is less efficient, takes energy to make, and will not supply the amount of energy required to supply the United States means biofuels should be banned from use in the United

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An example of this is corn, a common GMO. The manipulation of genes that have formed genetically modified corn has allowed it to become widely available to consumers because of its increase in numbers and decrease in price. If the genetically modified strain of cabbage would be more expensive, the economy and social aspect would be affected in a negative way since people would be unable to afford it and would no longer be able to eat cabbage. The final factor that would need to be taken into consideration is the environmental impact of a GMO.

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Don’t let the cheap prices at the supermarket fool you, instead look at it as you are spending less money to get a product that has more taste, nutrients, a longer shelf life, and less chemicals (Wax). Since these crops are genetically engineered to restrict bugs and pest there is no money the farmers need to spend on harmful chemicals. The farmer gets to produce more crops spending less money and sell it to companies for a lower price for us to buy (Howard et al.). According to Ohio State University, “a recent meta-analysis of 147 corn, maize and cotton production studies showed a 21% increase in crop yields for those using GM technology. The analysis also showed an average profit gain of 69% for GM-adopting farmers”

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It more a question of how far will labeling go, whether or not it will just be on the original foods, such as buying corn itself, or if it will be in processed foods made up of corn, such as

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