Replying to a message of TOM WALKER to BOB ACKLEY:

 TW>>>> Actualy FEED prices are WAY up because of the LIBERAL IDIOT
 TW>>>> decision to make Alcohol out of a FOOD/FEED Crop.

 BA>> Distiller's grain is used as feed for cattle and hogs.  Look it up.

 TW> during a lot of their life perhaps. But to Fatten them up for
 TW> Slaugher Cattle, Pigs, and Chickens are fed CORN.

I know that.  Most of the corn grown in this country has been going for cattle, hog
and chicken feed for decades, this is not something new - although most folks don't
know it.

Far and away the biggest commodity - including corn - broker in the US is Cargill,
which is probably the biggest company (it's a worldwide operation now) that nobody
ever heard of.  Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) is small potatoes in comparison.

 TW> In fact Foster Farms is the LARGEST Corn Broker here in California and
 TW> they Purchase it for their Chickens that are raised by Contractors.

 TW> The Increase of Food Corn prices because of the diversion of hte Crop
 TW> to Alcohol Production IS the largest reason for the higher Food Cost
 TW> in the Stores.

Actually it isn't.  The rise in the price of commodities was and is due to the 
price of oil.  Oil is not only used to make some fertilizers and pesticides, it's
needed - in large quantities - to plant, tend, harvest and transport those crops.
FWIW, the price of soybeans went up more than corn did last year; and right
now corn is around $4/bushels - not that much different from the price in 2006
when I worked in a grain elevator - and soybeans are up around $10/bushel (in
2006 soybeans were about $5-7/bushel).  FYI a bushel of corn weighs 56 pounds
and a bushel of soybeans weighs 60 pounds.

Also FWIW a significant portion of the US corn harvest rots and is never used for
anything.

 TW> Adn it is NOT only the United States that is affected
 TW> .They hafe had riots in Mexico becaue of the BIG increase in proces
 TW> of what they eat that is made form Corn. Also enough Soy Bean farmers
 TW> wqanting to ber in on the Alcohol Gravy Train have shifted large
 TW> areasof Fromer Soy Bean fields to the Corn Crop seriouslty raising
 TW> the cost of soy beans in the far east where it is a popular food
 TW> source.

All that is a popular myth supported by - among other things - the oil companies
that don't want the competition.  Oil companies are also working to delay/defeat
hybrid and electric (battery) technologies.

 TW> Corn to Alcohol is another IDIOT LIBERAL Idea gone wrong NO mater how
 TW> you look at it.

Actually I've been using ethanol (10% blend) since 1979.  Works just fine for me.
And amoang other things it doesn't freeze in one's gas lines or fuel filter in really
cold (subzero) weather.  One of my cars - that has run gasohol (10% ethanol) all
its life - has over 360,000 miles on it and is going strong.

 TW> And then there is the current reports that the Corn to Alcohol
 TW> proicess and use generates more Green House gasses that that
 TW> produced by Gasoline perduced and used per gallon.

FYI there's a pilot plant going in around here that will be making ethanol
from algae.

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