Life & Trends
Your Meals More Expensive?
Blame Corn
By Nat Helms Association says it is a “completely of the USDA, contends that ethanol
renewable, domestic, environmen- production is a major factor in rising
IFTY YEARS AGO, 8 OUNCES OF CORN tally friendly fuel that enhances the food costs. Instead of shortages that
F
Flakes cost 18 cents. Today, a box nation’s economy and energy inde- lead to starvation in less developed
that size costs $2.99. pendence.” countries, price infl ation is the result
In Redwood Falls, Minn., the cost About 1,900 gas stations in the in the United States.
of making school lunches jumped United States offer E85 ethanol fuel. “If corn prices were increasing
10 percent during the past year. The That number is expected to double 60 percent in a given year, you V
1,200 cartons of milk elementary in the coming months because of might see on average about a 6-per-
school students buy each day have government and ethanol industry cent increase at retail for those food
increased in cost by nearly 20 per- grants of up to $30,000 per station products,” Leibtag says.
cent in the same to install E85 fuel pumps, according The Department of Labor found
T
A
VER/UPI/LANDO
An unintended
time, school district to the association. that ethanol fuel additive made from
T
THEW S
consequence:
offi cials say. Ephraim Leibtag, an economist corn is powering the infl ationary /MA
It’s getting with the Economic Research Service engine driving up prices for con- PUMP
Ethanol-based
more expensive to
E85, the trendy
eat, and it’s poised
to get worse. All
new fuel, uses
across America,
so much corn
food prices are spi-
raling upward, even
in its formula
as defl ation hits
that it’s driving
most other sectors
of the economy.
up the cost of
The reason? It’s
grain-based
the increasing use
of corn, the coun-
foods across
try’s most versatile
the country.
grain, as a source
of fuel rather
than food, according to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture.
The villain, food producers say,
is the U.S. Department of Energy
program to promote ethanol-based
“E85.” The fuel blend is 85 percent
ethanol — corn alcohol — and 15 per-
cent gasoline. In its pure form, corn
ethanol can and has been ingested
by humans for centuries.
The National Ethanol Vehicle
ADDICTED TO CORN About 1,900 U.S.
gas stations offer E85 fuel, which is
85 percent corn ethanol.
64 NEWSMAX MAXLIFE / JANUARY 2009
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