When even the progressive Grist blog starts calling for an end of US subsidies for grain-based ethanol production, perhaps the end of the road is getting in sight.
I would like to destroy the fantasyland that the White House and the USDA live in where biofuels are agriculturally “free.” The price of growing fuel for our cars is clear and unacceptably high.
As a farmer, I still believe that there is a role for bio-fuel production over time to use up low-value crops that are not suitable for food production processes. I can also see some rationale to look at the demand for fuel making sense when grain prices are low and energy prices are high. However, I do believe we have arrived at the end of the “infant industry” rationale for subsidizing the sector. It is time for the USA to drop its direct subsidies that support grain-based ethanol production and allow imports from low cost countries such as Brazil
