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Location: AP Econ in the News: Unit II topics
Discussion: Demand for Corn in Chicago
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AndreaEggli |
Demand for Corn in Chicago
Sep 22 2008, 1:09 PM EDT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6481029.stmDuring the last year the corn prices in Chicago have nearly doubled. The prices are increasing drastically, because refineries have an increasing demand on corn to make ethanol. Ethanol is than being used for ordinary cars. As corn is a energy source, its prices have been rising and corn is beginning to get scarce. Now, George W. Bush is trying to increase the use of bio-fuels, so that the corn can be used for food again. If the demand in corn does not decrease the prices will even rise in supermarkets. Do you find this valuable?
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LauraGambineri |
1. RE: Demand for Corn in Chicago
Oct 22 2008, 8:39 AM EDT
I've read this article myself, and I also read that the prices might go up. I think it is positive that our society is trying to find a sub-product to produce fuel, as we are running out of fuel immensly. However, I think it is very dangerous to plug the tanks to fields. Of course we want to keep on driving a car and travelling around the world; and obvioulsy we need fuel for this. But looking at the far-away consequences, what is fuel, if we don't have corn? More and more countries will start producing bio-fuels, and more and more corn will be used for fuel. We are at a high risk of loosing our corn, a great resource, that is also scarce. What do we really want, food or travelling? We might think that we can always grow more corn, but fuel costs muc more than corn sold in the supermarkets. Smart farmers will sell more and more bio-fuel and no more corn to eat. This way the already scarce corn, might disappear all the way soon, if we don't take action.
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MaxHuijgen |
2. RE: Demand for Corn in Chicago
Oct 22 2008, 11:39 AM EDT
This is indeed a really good topic to think about, like Laura, I looked at it too and wrote about it on my own blog. I think Laura might be overreacting a bit, corn's not going to disappear, but I can see it becoming a 'luxury product' in the future. What's even worse, ethanol as a bio-fuel has either the same or even higher CO2 emissions depending on how it's produced. And also, with farmers wanting to make some quick money by producing more and more corn, the price of regular edible corn is indeed going up in the supermarkets, but what's more is the price of agricultural land is soaring too. The higher demand for land that can be used to grow corn on is fueling (pun intended) the real estate companies to ask higher prices than before for these little gateways to money. Interesting huh?
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