People going hungry because of growing corn for ethanol

[Stargazer99]

Make those corporate farmers which accept taxpayer millions in corporate welfare grow corn for ethanol instead of taking welfare from those least able to afford it. Make them go to work.
Read just recently the poor in Mexico will go hungry (tortillas)because the US imports corn into Mexico. Well, how about NOT PUTTING CORN SYRUP in every damn product on the gocery shelf. Admittly, Corporate America would have to use sugar instead in their products. And of course the profits would go down. But althernate fuel, a healther citizenry (corn syrup is not the best food source espcially for diabetics)(notice how many more of our citizens are suffering from type 2 diabetes than ever before-could there be a connection?)But, no our god Capitalism will not allow for this. What's the definition of crazy...keeping on doing something that doesn't make things better! Ring a bell Joe Six Pac? How much you want to be that whatever is good for you is never going to see the light of day because you will sit there and take it in the shorts and Corp America knows that!

[glowing]

1. Actually, stevia would be a much better substitute.. It is sweet like

sugar, but doesn't have the same properties... In Japan they use it in their coke products... Its all but banned here because it would be a natural and better alternative than drinking diet sodas laced with aspartame.

[soothsayer]

4. but it's hard to get the balance right---too little, not sweet enough, too much and it gets bitter.

I'd LOVE to taste a Japanese coke tho!

[glowing]

8. If coca cola can do it for the Japanese, then I think they can do it

for us... and just like sugar, people would learn how they like it.

[nickinSTL]

11. stevia is legal as a dietary supplement

but not as a food additive.

According to the Wikipedia article on stevia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia), Coca-Cola has developed a stevia-based food additive that they are trying to get FDA approval for by 2009.

[BadgerKid]

2. And people might go thirsty (4 gal. water per gal ethanol)

Huge use of water. Approximately 4 gallons of water are used for every gallon of ethanol produced. Water use is much greater if irrigation is required. If ethanol production is in an arid region, non-renewable aquifers may be drawn down. http://www.energybulletin.net/30685.html


Time to buy stock in water processing companies. Oh wait...who's got money? One guess.

[razzleberry]

3. better than petroleum from the Middle East .n/t

[SoonerPride]

5. No, not really

Choosing one evil over another isn't a better bargain.

There is a third way.

Seek it.

[shenmue]

6. Um...

What the hell are you talking about?

Try writing coherently next time.

No one is going hungry because of ethanol. Tell farmers who grow drug crops to knock it off and start growing food. End of problem.

[RC]

7. Drug crops???

Like what?

[Vinca]

9. Corn syrup is in all kinds of products where it shouldn't be.

Canned vegetables, for example. Yuck!

[Totally Committed]

10. I wrote about this a while back in my Journal:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Totally%20Committed/54

It's a good article, and I think, worth the read.

TC