I'm in a rural area and I make a living constructing agricultural and commercial grain handling storage tanks etc. The whole ethanol thing is very complex. I don't think anyone could possibly fully understand what is happening in the grain market. I am just barely smart enough to know that I don't understand. When Katrina hit New Orleans the facilities that ship grain overseas were shut down. This was 2 weeks before our local corn harvest started. When those facilities shut down, the river ports along the Mississippi river shut down, or lowered the price of corn to poverty levels. There was no place to ship the corn, so it was dumped on the dirt.
Illinois, Iowa and the big corn producing states are now looking at corn deficits due primarily to ethanol. They'll have to import corn from other states just to cover their needs. That has NEVER happened before. So, with demand, the price of corn goes up. More farmer's plant corn where they used to plant other crops. They go to a different crop rotation to grow more acres of corn. There's less soybeans than there was before so the price of soybeans goes up. The price of corn goes up and it makes ethanol less effective. Everyone wants cheap food, but, everyone wants to assist the farmer. Look at Willie Nelson and FarmAid. I say cheap food will win out.
If I was president, I'd fix it. I'd let supply and demand figure out the price of corn and the US government would have nothing to do with it. If we ran outta fuel, I'd send all of our boys over yonder and whip the hell outta them and take their oil. They'd push the button and millions of people would die, including me and I'd be responsible for WWIII. That won't work.
Seems to be a pretty delicate balance. I don't know the answers, if I did, I'd be rich in a year or two. Like the song says...TIMES...THEY ARE A-CHANGIN...Me, I just wanna be free to ride my machine. Biggest worry I have in life is my head gasket leak. Actually, that doesn't even bother me too much.