Food vs. Fuel II

From a Reuters news story last week:

BRASILIA, April 16 (Reuters) - President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva defended Brazil's production of biofuels on Wednesday, rejecting criticism that they are furthering a surge in global food prices and harming the environment.
"Don't tell me, for the love of God, that food is expensive because of biodiesel. Food is expensive because the world wasn't prepared to see millions of Chinese, Indians, Africans, Brazilians and Latin Americans eat," Lula told reporters.
Critics say the increased production of crops for ethanol and biodiesel, which is derived from oil seeds, competes for land with food crops.
Lula said he was "shocked" that biofuel critics failed to mention the impact that high oil prices had on food production costs, such as fertilizers. "It's always easier to hide economic and political interests behind supposed social and environmental interests," he said.

This is just some excerpts from the article, but it gives you an idea of Pres. Lulu's facing his critics head on.

Some ethanol facts: The ethanol industry in the U.S. employs about 230,000 people in construction, operation, and support services. It provides up to $12 billion in tax revenue annually. A 2003 paper co-authored by the U.S. Energy Dept. and the Agriculture Dept. proved a net energy gain of 67% from the production of ethanol. We only eat 8% of the corn grown in the Midwest - the majority is fed to livestock. Ethanol production only uses the corn's starch, the protein that is left is still fed to livestock. Ethanol in gasoline is much better for the environment than the poisons, lead and MTBE that it replaces. Ethanol use helps reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Ethanol from corn still makes sense.