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Ethanol Adds To Cost Of Filling Up
By Mr Ethanol | June 25, 2007
Palm Beach Post:
The first indicator that the ethanol solution to high gasoline prices is a silver bullet with tarnish on it came from Mexico in January.
Mexicans took to the streets to protest the high price of tortillas. Tortillas? What do they have to do with ethanol? Tortillas are basic to Mexican food. They are wrappings made from corn or - less authentically - other grains into which you can wrap almost anything else that is edible.
The corn is the connection. Tortillas are made from it. So is ethanol. With corn in demand for ethanol, its price rises. So the price of tortillas rises.
“Wait a minute,” said Mexican government officials. Tortillas are made from white corn; ethanol is from yellow corn. But when the price of yellow corn goes up, food processors switch to white if they can, so its price rose, too. Hmm.
The thought of our gas-guzzling ways taking food from poor Mexicans was disquieting. But the case of the expensive tortillas had a Scotch verdict: not proven.
Then in April came news from the German magazine Spiegel that the price of barley had doubled. Barley is a key component in beer, which Germans call “liquid bread.” But there is more money in ethanol fuels, so barley growers were switching to what Spiegel called “trendy crops like rapeseed.” Up went the price of barley. Up went the price of beer.
When you talk about price spikes of tortillas in Mexico or beer in Germany, you are talking about a rising cost of living. Think of Colonel Sanders having to double his prices because of the high price of chicken feed. Which could be coming down the ethanol road.
Topics: Ethanol Prices, Gas, News |
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