Just terrible news.....

[johncinquo]

With the oil costs so high, the ethanol plants are trying to crank out as much as possible, taking up all the corn, so corn prices are higher, so farmers are planting corn, and not wheat, so now wheat prices are high,

now the beer makers announced they are raising prices!   Where will it end!   
We must all abandon our gas guzzling cars and cut back.  I might start riding my bike to the tavern.... 



Is this the "I'm in my own little world" emoticon?

[snowman]

So one day a couple off eggheads were sitting around and said 'I know, lets turn food into fuel" yup, thats real smart, that'll fix things alrighty ::)Wouldn't want to just drill our own oil instead, like anwr, gulf, calif and florida coast, that would be to simple.As for riding bike to the tav, sounds like a great idea if you live in right place, I'm pretty sure you can't get a DUI riding a bike. ;D

[crtreedude]

But you could do like some poor guy here - ride your bike off a bridge into the jaws of Caimans.  [Caimans are alligators with a really bad attitude - man eaters even]

[sharp edge]

John 
Good news.... When they make ethanol, animal food is a big by-product, so we should be able to ride a horse to the tavern. 8)
SE

[Greg Cook]

And a good horse knows the way home, even when you can't "remember".  Trust me on that.

Greg

[SwampDonkey]

The province of Quebec was all gung hoe for ethonal production with corn in 2005.

Here is what they have to say today:

"No sooner than in May 2005, the then Ministry of Agriculture, Yvon Vallières, gave its approval to build the first corn-grain ethanol plant, in Varennes, "for obvious economic and ecological reasons". Two years later, still for obvious environmental reasons, the Government backs out on the issue and swears that this won't happen again: no other corn-grain ethanol plant will be allowed to be built in Québec. On Radio-Canada's tv channel show called "Enquête1" yesterday night, Natural Resources minister Claude Béchard promised that the Varennes plant would be the one and only one of that kind. "We must find some other solutions", said the Minister. Its colleague from the Ministry of the Environnement, Line Beauchamp, agrees with him because of the "environmental impacts linked to intensive corn production". "As to what we can do, this is a first and a last", said Philippe Cannon, Environment Ministers' spokesperson to La Presse."

[Source: Frontier Centre For Public Policy ]

[Tom]

I think it is possible to get a DUI, in Florida, for riding a bike while intoxicated.  What can't be covered by laws for machines is blanketed by laws such as "Public Drunkeness".  


(Sections 316.003(2), (10) and 316.2065(1), F.S.)A bicycle is classified as a vehicle.  A person in control of a vehicle on a street or highway is a driver.

(Section 316.193, F.S.)   It is unlawful to drive any vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Prohibition is alive and well, behind the scenes.  :D

[sharp edge]

Donkey
I think the reason for that is Canada is a lot better at making snow than making corn. The U.S. could supply the earth with ethanol if they put thier mind to it.
SE

[Dana]

John buy some of my barley turn it into home brew and you won't have to even go to the local tavern. The beer might be good enough for you to start your own micro-brewery.

[Gary_C]

Just yesterday I took my annual Logsafe training and two hours were devoted to drug and alcohol awareness for drivers and employers. We saw one short video of a very nice guy who stopped after work for a "couple of beers" that turned into seven. Then on his way home he had to swerve at the last second to miss a lady walking, but had to stop because there was a noise coming from under his car. The noise was a two year old child still in his stroller trapped under his car.

Needless to say he was arrested and taken to jail. Two hours later the policeman at the scene of the accident came and just stood and stared at him in his cell for about 15 minutes and then told him he was a "baby killer" as the child had died. Then the policeman went to every other cell in that jail and told the other inmates they were sharing the jail with a "baby murder."

The driver was convicted of vehicular homicide and spent eight years in prison. As he stated later the prison time was easy as compared to living with the fact that he was a "baby killer."

So if you do go to that tavern for a few beers, please DO ride your bicycle, horse, or just walk. You never know what could happen to even nice guys, or two year olds.

[bull]

There's plenty of land for corn,and wheat.... usda is still payinf counter cyclical payment for not growing corn acres.....

Its all just another way for the Gov't to screw something else up.... Get gov't out of the commodities and let supply and demand rule.
It will take a a few years but it will straighten out.....
Also export tariff's and price control with our present economy may help....
If food and water are today's gold, then America's is still the richest nation,,,raise the prices for exports ????

Hmm ???? Is supply and demand working I guess, fuel prices keep going up and average Joe American keeps buying and bitching.... How's about holding out for a few day's
Kellogs will still keep making corn flakes and for us sour pusses Tony's frosted flakes will still be on the market....
The gov'ts cheap food plan is going down the drain and reallity is starting to hit AW SHUCK'S Oh and maybe today's farmer will start to get paid what they are worth I hope ???

[sharp edge]

Gary
That also a reason a country has to be carfull about going to war. Its not pretty to kill a baby.
SE

[DouginUtah]

Well, the good news is that some of the decision-makers are starting to smarten up.

"Cargill announces it's scrapping plans for a $200 million ethanol plant near Topeka, Kan. A judge approves the bankruptcy sale of an unfinished ethanol plant in Canton, Ill.. And that was just Tuesday.

"Indeed, plans for as many as 50 new ethanol plants have been shelved in recent months, as Wall Street pulls back from the sector, says Paul Ho, a Credit Suisse investment banker specializing in alternative energy. Financing for new ethanol plants, Ho says, "has been shut down."

How can the ethanol industry be slumping only two months after Congress passed an energy bill most experts consider a biofuels boon? The answer is runaway corn prices. (At least the government subsidy has been reduced from 51¢ to 47¢.)

"The growth in the demand for grain by ethanol grain distilleries now exceeds all growth in demand for feed grain in the world. We're seeing a dramatic tightening that will become worse before it gets better. I don't know how the world will cope."
      -Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute

"The government has to confront the prevailing delusion that the US can become "energy independent" in the sense that we can run WalMart on something other than oil from foreign lands.

-----

"Typical Ethanol Factory Consumes 500 Gallons of Water Per Minute
Officials in Tampa, Florida, got a surprise recently when a local firm building the state's first ethanol-production factory put in a request for 400,000 gallons a day of city water. Florida is already suffering from a prolonged drought and residents wonder where the extra water will come from. A typical ethanol factory producing 50m gallons of biofuels a year needs about 500 gallons of water a minute."

[SwampDonkey]

Donkey
I think the reason for that is Canada is a lot better at making snow than making corn. The U.S. could supply the earth with ethanol if they put thier mind to it.
SE

I think a trip is due up along the Saint Lawrence and Lac St Jean area. Nothing but corn and canola as far as you can see. No, we don't have as many acres of cultivated land as in the US, nor the population to consume it.

Here in New Brunswick we can grow good corn to, but the acreage is into potato production where the return is a lot more and no subsidies to grow it. Most corn here is grown for cattle in dairy and feed lots. We import most of the corn at the grocery store because one big farm here would grow more than all of New Brunswick would consume at the dinner plate.

Some pictures from the Saguenay region of Quebec, 8 hours north of here by road and ferry.








So far north, your on the edge of the clouds.  ;D

[Gary_C]

sharp edge

The decision to go to war is so dramatically different from the decision to get intoxicated that I reject that argument.

The decision to NOT go to war can be even more devastitating to children as evidenced by the ethnic cleansing in the Sudan and Bosina.

[flip]

I've got one more coctail left in my bottle of Glenlevit.  If'n the price of an Glen... or Dalmore goes up I ain't gonna be happy >:( 

I'll still continue my evil way, but I still won't be happy >:( >:( >:( >:(

[Gary_C]

Well, the good news is that some of the decision-makers are starting to smarten up.

The decision makers are just reacting to the apparently sucessful attempts by big oil to block alternative fuels.
http://www.consumerfed.org/pdfs/Ethanol.pdf

If you want to see the facts on food price increases, read this.
http://www.card.iastate.edu/iowa_ag_review/summer_07/article2.aspx

I also just read where the movie theater owners are crying because they were selling a bag of popcorn worth 3 cents and a soft drink worth 5 cents all for nine bucks and now they have to pay 15% more for the popcorn.  :

[sharp edge]

Donk
I live in zone 4 too. and drive to Iowa and s. MN. I do like Canada and it has a lot of pluses.

Gary
I did say a country has to be carefull. I talked to two soldier in Nam that killed babies, I think thier life was over.
SE

[olyman]

As for riding bike to the tav, sounds like a great idea if you live in right place, I'm pretty sure you can't get a DUI riding a bike. ;D
[/quote] as a matter of fact--yes you can--public intox--guy in town next to me got nailed for riding his bike home drunk--tell me--how drunk you got to be to not be able to ride a bicycle???  and another guy got a ticket for being intox--driving his farm tractor home--- : :

[Norm]

Gary you should know by now that ethanol is almost worse than CO2 for the environment.  :D

[Gary_C]

Gary you should know by now that ethanol is almost worse than CO2 for the environment.  :D

Ya, I know Norm. These guys are just lucky they have you and I to keep them from getting too far astray.     :D :D :D

[stonebroke]

At least the farmers are finally getting paid a decent price. We want to be energy producers not energy consumers and we are one of the few industries to actually grow energy.

Stonebroke

[Dana]

I was going to put this on the alternative energy board but everyone seems to be here discussing the subject. http://www.dtn.com/emailers/energy/2k8/biodiesel_eu_022708/

[Furby]

Neighbor guy used to drive his lawn tractor to the bar a couple doors down from me. :

[Faron]

I have to think of my Great Grandmother when I hear what we "can't" do in producing biofuels.  She always retorted, when someone said "I can't"  "Old Can't never did anything but sit an his a$$ and cry "I can't!"