Back Talk

How long will it take the law of unintended consequences to wake them up to the affect on the environment of growers converting more and more land to growing corn and the corresponding increased use of fertilizer and pesticides? What about the jump in demand for water to nourish the water-intensive corn? We already have problems because of the increased demand on ground water resources. Even worse, the ethanol development process uses a lot of water. With the government subsidizing farmers to raise corn for ethanol, many naturally grow fewer other grains which, in turn, causes a shortage of those commodities and a jump in prices. Beef prices are up because of the increased price of cattle feed grains from fields that are now devoted to ethanol. We have here just one more case of political malfeasance. The politicians get some kudos for appearing to solve the energy problem, the land owners make money growing subsidized corn, and, as usual, the public obliviously pay for it all with higher prices and more taxes. A typical politicians’ scam on the taxpaying public, once again, the old mushroom theory of governing: “keep em in the dark and feed em lots of manure.”