I see that “Plan A” is well underway. As you recall, “Plan A” was the one that determined to subsidize farmers to grow more corn. And I understand that they get a pretty sweet deal for growing it.
Now, one of the established rules of nature is that corn makes for great fuel. So all of that corn is needed to transform into Ethanol (Hey, wasn’t she on “I Love Lucy?”).
You know what they say: What is good to get my engine started at breakfast must also be good to get my automobile engine started too, right?
And doesn’t the Word of Wisdom say something like, “…wheat for man, and corn for the combustible engine, and oats for the horse, and rye for the fowls and for swine….”
Especially when 70 percent more energy is required to produce ethanol than the energy that actually is in it. Gee whiz, this is something I want to support! The current rate is a flat 51 cents per gallon, paid to the oil company that is willing to mix the gasoline and the ethanol together! Where do I sign the check, Slick?
So how has “Plan A” been working out? Well, I notice that the price of wheat is going up. Why? Because the wheat farmers aren’t dumb. They saw that they can get a guaranteed price for a corn subsidy, so they stopped growing wheat and switched over to corn. So breads and pasta prices are up, because supply is down.
By the way, did you know that 11 acres of farmland could supply of food for seven people? Or it can run the average family car for a year’s worth of ethanol. Take your pick, but you can’t do both.
Oh, and it turns out that – who knew? – corn is used in a lot of animal feed. Well, the supply is going to the gas pumps, not to the farms, so the price to fill the stomach of a cow has just risen too. Which means that milk and beef prices will follow. As well as for any other animals, such as hog, cattle, chicken, turkey and fish, that we might want to order up between two slices of bread (wheat bread?).
To quote the T-Rex in ‘Meet the Robinsons,’ “I have a big head and little arms, and I’m just not sure how well this plan was thought through.”
Oh, but Ryan! You are so pessimistic! Look at the bright side! Even though you are paying a whole lot more money for the price for wheat, look at the amazing cost savings you are receiving at the gas pump!
Yeah, just watch those prices fall! Whew-hew!
Alright-y then. “Plan A” has gone swimmingly. Who is ready now for “Plan B”?
“Plan B” goes like this:
We undo the insanity that has been put in place. I realize that we’ve made promises to the farmers (and probably also to the gasoline makers), and the farmers have put the seeds in the ground already. It would be unfair to renege on the promises already made. But as soon the growing seasons make it feasible to end the agreements to subsidize corn, we do it.
Once those subsidy monies are available again, we reallocate them toward developing, as quickly as possible, a different technology. One that is independent of oil. I don’t know if that is Solar – Electric, or Hydrogen, or whatever; but there must be some honest research out there that is willing to break free of the establishment, and is clean burning, and doesn’t continue to put us at the mercy of buying oil from terrorist nations. (is that where the saying about “holding us over a barrel” comes from?)
I realize that we have a lot of cars and trucks already out there that run on oil (in fact, I own one). And so we can’t just discontinue oil usage overnight. So the other phase of “Plan B” goes like this. We loosen all the insane restrictions on oil drilling in Anwar (that is a part of Alaska, and I’m told that they have a lot of oil there). Now, we be sensible and responsible about it. I know there are some sensitive Porcupine Caribou out there. So we can build a little fence around the area where we want to drill, and we can shoo the Caribou out, so that we don’t disturb them. We can be gentle and humane about it (Unless, of course, we learn that they want to eat our corn too – then things might have to get ugly). But we go in and we take the oil that we have, and we use it to support our own needs.
“For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare….” We just need to manage what we got.
And one more thing I want to see happen. We’ve had no petroleum refineries in this country between 1976 til 2005. One was approved then in 2005. And what since? Nada. For my perspective, I was not yet born 1976. That’s crazy. Let’s loosen a few of the nonsensical restrictions, and build us a couple of new refineries. If we have the oil supply, and we can refine it faster, that will put it out to market sooner, which will also help lower the price at the pump. I could guarantee that there is at least one “big oil” company out there that would jump at the chance to open a new refinery if they were given the go ahead.
And one more thing. Vote Wayne Allyn Root for president in 2008.
This news story was buried on the bottom of the front page. But it backs up some of what I said.
Buying wheat now takes lot more ‘bread’
I also spotted an interesting t-shirt yesterday. It read:
“Only when the last tree has died and
The last river has been poisoned and
The last fish has been caught,
Will we realize that
We cannot eat money.”
Though I’ve been told that you can actually eat money, but it doesn’t digest very well.