Friday, June 22, 2007

Let's Talk Cost vs. Price

The price of gasoline has actually gone down since the beginning of summer. I, for one, am surprised. I keep hearing all about this ethanol plan, and to be honest, when I first began hearing about it, it sounded as if it may have promise, but then I did some more listening and some more checking and I believe ethanol promises to be an expensive, inadequate non-solution. First, I noticed that many of the farmers are actually investing in this ethanol production. So, they are taking the chance with the corn crop, doing the work, then financing the refining. This sounds like the short cut to bankruptcy for the few farmers that are left, or maybe the banks will be more compassionate than they have been throughout history. There is another interesting fact about this ethanol. Cows eat corn, and ethanol is made from corn, so while ethanol is being introduced at the pumps, milk is going up and meat is going up. We raise our own meat and dairy, so I don't deal with the prices too much, but the other day I did happen to notice that a steak was priced at $12 something a pound! Milk is over $3.00 a gallon and the pro-ethanol people either aren't listening or don't have to worry about increased cost of luxuries like milk. I was talking to my mom about the price of beef and mentioned that chuck roast was over $3.00 a pound. She, being a very staunch Bush supporter informed me that I could get three meals out of a chuck roast. You know, I could get three meals out of a chuck roast when it was still a cheap cut of meat under $2.00 a pound. The quality of the cut of a chuck roast has not improved, but the cost of feeding and moving that critter has greatly increased. I haven't checked the price of beer and whiskey, but if those prices get affected, then what? Oh, maybe the conservatives can just bring back prohibition and use all the corn for their SUVs. I already mentioned that the price of livestock feed has increased and according to the big sign at our MFA, we have to give our name and address when we buy grain because of some part of the Patriot Act. I'll tell you why the keepers of the Patriot Act need the names of those buying grain. This has nothing to do with protecting us from terrorists or home made bombs. If it had to do with home made explosives, they'd want our names when we buy fertilizer . . . They want to keep track of who is not dependant upon the governmental whims and provision. Do you think for a minute, having my name in the data base for grain purchases is going to change any of the global war on terror? If you do, well that's just sad. I realize some conservative radio talk show host is going to come up with some stats that inform us that milk and meat have always been a certain percentage more expensive than gasoline, so somehow they can make their listening audience support this nonsense. But back to ethanol. Making ethanol is no simple procedure. I have read that it actually takes more fuel to produce it, than is produced. Consider, you have to plant corn, that takes a tractor burning fuel. And it took a tractor burning fuel to prepare the field for planting. Then the crop must be tended, which also requires a tractor, still burning fuel, before any is produced. When the crop is harvested, once again, fuel is required for the machinery. And after all of that, it's still corn. The processing and refining hasn't even begun. Besides all that, we are looking at a growing season, from the seeds to the harvest, and hoping for weather to produce a good crop. This ethanol business is not nearly as easy as just declaring war on an oil rich nation. If we really begin to aim for ethanol on a full scale fuel supply, we will literally be burning cattle feed to drive our SUVs and huge trucks. And I wonder why. . . Does our country really need so many people driving SUVs, talking on a cell phone or huge vehicles with just the driver and no passengers? But, of course we need the "bigger is better" vehicles to display our political b/s. ( that's bumper stickers)
A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny;
and see thou hurt not the oil . . . the Revelation

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