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April 02, 2007

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Frank Goudy

Price of corn has little to do with price of corn flakes.

A 14 oz box of corn flakes has about 10 oz of milled corn in it. For every $1.00 the price of corn goes up the cost of the corn in the box is about 1.1 cents (that's right)

Any prices beyond this are just an excuse to gouge the stupid consumer and blame the farmer. Nothing more.

Ethanol ain't the problem

Tempus

Hi Frank,
Thanks for your post, and I apologize for not being there since then!
You are right about the price of corn flakes, and this probably why the grocery bill is not climbing at the same rate as the raw stuff (by now wheat, corn and other prices are up 4 fold in a few years). But going up it does. We can see it more easily on things like eggs and milk going on at a fast pace.

I still think ethanol is the most stupid policy in many years. It is awful for the environment, as it takes a lot of water and fertilizer to grow the corn, and it is using our food supply to move our fat behinds. The upside is that the less food we have to eat, the less corn we'll need to move it so in the end it will balance out.

In any case, by itself corn-based ethanol is a waste of time as it barely adds up any energy to the equation. Sugar-cane based ethanol is far more efficient.

I see a lot of farmers getting the blame for this, as you mention, but I agree that they shouldn't. The price of their inputs is going up very fast as well (diesel, fertilizer, seeds, etc) and they're not making more money out of this.

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