I call B.S. That article left out quite a few facts.

Ethanol made from corn, is made from FIELD CORN. animals eat field corn (like cows and chickens) not humans. This should not adversely affect the corn food supply of humans.

Corn stalks can be ground into a feed for cows called Silage. This feeds both dairy and feedlot cows.

Soybeans ARE eaten by both animals and humans. However, soybeans cannot return the amount of product per acre, that corn can, given all it's uses and sheer volumes. (Soybeans can't grow 5-8 ft tall).

And Ethanol is not meant to solve the energy needs of any country, it is meant as an additive: reducing dependance on non renewable oil sources, and reducing dependance on foreign oil.

It not BS Napster. With respect you are a bit confused.

You CANNOT take the leftover cornstalks and make silage from them. Silage can only be made from green growing corn. .... corn still in the milk stage. The grain corn needed to produce ethanol must be allowed to actually turn into grain. By then the stocks are hard, dry and relatively useless and is usually plowed under. I have often thought that some research should be put into finding more productive ways to use this fiber. But I assure you one cannot make silage with it as it would just turn moldy

One could use these stocks as bedding, although cereal grain straw makes much better bedding... mainly oats, wheat or barley. The dry corn stocks are called stover.

It really does not much matter that corn grows so much taller than soybeans as its mainly the grain portion that provides the starch that is turned into sugars that is turned into ethanol..

Consider that there are only X amount of acres to grow corn so if a disproportionate amount is diverted into growing corn for the ethanol market there will of course be less acreage for silage corn, feed corn and any other type of corn.. Already the price of feed corn is skyrocketing

Plus soybeans are so much less destructive on the soil in that they are able to fix much of their own nitrogen, thus not needing massive amounts of petroleum based commercial fertilizer.

I'm not saying that soybean ethanol is the way to go, but I am saying that many many more plants be they grasses, grains, or some types of sugar beets, Jerusalem artichokes should be carefully considered before totally distorting the market vis-a vis food supplies.

Are the agricultural scientists so lacking in productive imagination that they cannot conceive of utilizing marginal land for growing crops that could readily be utilized in the production of ethanol?

I think not. Rather I suspect the greedy hand of a giant agri-business ..... the Dupont, Monsanto and others of dubious reputation are behind this unseemly haste to put most of the eggs in the corn basket (so to speak).

Good points, all- Socratoad.

I should have clarified my statement on Silage, yes that is correct. I was thinking of total use of the plant, vis a vis, little to no waste when I was typed that.

It seems that ANY resource be it natural or man made, will skyrocket in price if demand for it is created and sustained. ; (