I hope you are right, Lefty. I do not see the prices going down anytime in the near future. The demand for corn for ethanol will continue to rise due to federal mandates for it to be added to fuel. The oil companies are involved with ethanol production. They do not want to miss out on a cash cow.

I am also worried that the effects on food priceswill be astronomical. Corn is being usedfor ethanol, burned in corn burning stoves, feed for livestock,the production of biodegradable plastics, corn oil, corn meal, etc, etc. We can only produce so much!

Leftybuckmaster, just because something was in CRP for 10 years doesn't mean you can't put corn in there because of the weeds. A heavy dose of round up on round-up-ready corn will kill all the weeds. as for the prices, 3.50 a bushel average is still an awesome price for corn. you won't see any farmers complaining about that!

Except the ones that grind corn to grain thier cattle!

This whole thing just gets on my nerves. The U.S. imports more grain/food than it exports. We also import over a billion worth of beef every year. Ethanol costs more to create than its worth. We do everything ass backwards these days.

the oil companies could care less about ethanol. they know it is a horrible idea otherwise they would have started making it years ago. but it uses to much corn which raises the price causing ethanol to be profitless. ethanol has been around for a long time but is not a good fuel source for automobiles. this ethanol thing is going to be short lived. and ethanol plants are actuall losing money right now cause of the high corn prices and the low fuel prices so i guess we'll see what happens in a couple years.

Any shortages of grain in the U.S. is because farmers are paid not to grow it. If all of our agricultural land was fully utilized, there would be surplus corn rotting in silos.

Just read in the local paper yesterday that they are getting ready to build an ethanol plant and a power plant 8 miles from my home to be up and running in 2009,go figure. Its being built on some old strip mine ground full of wildlife[:@]

"Any shortages of grain in the U.S. is because farmers are paid not to grow it. If all of our agricultural land was fully utilized, there would be surplus corn rotting in silos. "

What commodity program pays farmers not to produce a crop?CRP is a set-aside program, but its stated intent is related to conservation, not supplycontrols.

"once the ethanol plants go bankrupt..."

How many farmers/agribusiness companies are politicians going to let go bankrupt? Especially those producers/industries tied to ethanol? Zero.