This is some of the first corn we harvested this season. It’s sitting in the grain cart waiting to be loaded into a truck. It will be delivered to an ethanol plant. That does not mean it isn’t food. It’s not food as you see it now. You won’t ever find this type of corn in this form or on the cob in the grocery store. As you drive across much of the Corn Belt nearly all the corn you see won’t be on shelves in its raw form.
This is not a new idea, it’s been that way a very long time. It’s used to feed livestock or to be processed into other ingredients. But like I said this corn is going to an ethanol plant. But in addition to being turned into ethanol, roughly 30% of what is left after the ethanol is made will become dried distiller’s grains. These DDGs will provide a nutrient rich and digestible feed for livestock, which you will eventually eat. So even though I don’t think corn ethanol will be the only way to energy independence (more domestic oil and natural gas is OK by me, and there’s more than one way to make biofuel), it’s one way that is getting more efficient to produce all the time. I’ve got some other posts that dig deeper into this issue, but my simple point here is that the corn pictured will become fuel, but that in no way means it won’t find its way to your plate as well.
