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Originally Posted by Nickdago
Actually we are straining the corn crop and you are wrong if you think it is not effecting prices.
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What part of "farmers aren't getting much more money for their corn" don't you understand? What part of "farmers aren't making more profit, which is what they'd do if price went up due to demand, because they're spending all that money on petroleum-based fertilizer, energy for their operation, and fuel for their equipment" don't you understand?
The small amount of increase in price that the farmers are getting is not as much as their increase in energy costs to make it. Demand hasn't increased price, cost has increased price.
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Corn is used in multiple products such as corn syrup which is used in almost everything as a sweetner, it is in our cereals and a million other items. Last time I looked there were over 45 countries with riots due to the high cost of corn products in their countries.
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"Partially hydrogenated corn syrup", yes, I'm familiar with it. It's in the ingredients list of almost every sweet food and non-diet soda in the US. However, it's just not a big enough part, and the price of
corn has not risen enough, to have a big effect on the packaged food product price. Now, the energy that goes into shipping the corn to the processing plant, processing the corn into partially hydrogenated corn syrup, shipping the other ingredients' materials, the energy required for making the other ingredients, the energy required to ship all the processed ingredients, the energy required to make food out of those processed ingredients, the energy required to pack it, the energy required to ship it, and the energy required to store it...that adds up pretty quick.
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Originally Posted by Captain Awesome
There was a thing on the news tonight about turning coal into gasoline. Apparently other countries do this and gas cost to them is about $12.00 a barrel to make. I don't know what it costs to make gas from crude, but even with a large markup I don't think it's cheaper than $12 a barrel.
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Yup, old technology, kept down possibly by cost to develop and possibly by collusive behavior in the energy industry. Also, a new method has been discovered to make gasoline from wood scraps and tires:
http://www.camaro5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3846