There is competitive demand with food supply but that is the point. If we did not have surplus corn produced, the USA would be very vulnerable to food disruptions. Because as we saw during COVID, business supply chains are only optimized to current demand without disaster. So if there is another channel to purchase corn it creates more demand and keeps excess production going at a price that is still possible to produce at.
If the USA suddenly had a food crisis, the ethanol production could be stopped.
> If the USA suddenly had a food crisis, the ethanol production could be stopped.
Could it? 99% of corn grown (including that used for ethanol) isn’t the sweet corn for eatin. Would take a while to switch and I’m guessing there isn’t much excess capacity for turning it all into corn syrup and such.
COVID couldn’t even figure out how to redirect institutional toilet paper into consumer toilet paper. And that’s the same product!
The real buffer for a “food crisis” (whatever that is) is the amount of crop fed to livestock and food exported, not ethanol.
>COVID couldn’t even figure out how to redirect institutional toilet paper into consumer toilet paper. And that’s the same product!
Did the TP "shortage" actually get bad enough that a non-negligible portion of the population had nothing to wipe their bums with? Regardless, starving is much more dire than having nothing to wipe with. If people were actually starving, I'm sure they would have no issues eating field corn intended for animal consumption.
If the USA suddenly had a food crisis, the ethanol production could be stopped.