Ethanol Scam

I was very interested in the ethanol scam chapter of Food Inc. It is a major issue that received a lot of hype when first introduced as a possible energy source. It seemed all so easy, grow corn, make it into ethanol and no more oil would have to be used ever. However, as the chapter points out and as the issue has been researched more and more it becomes apparent that the idea of corn ethanol is very unlikely and highly inefficient. While the technology is now available to produce cars which could run entirely on ethanol, the issue of how to produce enough ethanol is troubling. To start, there is no where near enough land in the US to produce enough corn to power everything currently relying on oil. In fact the amount of land currently used to produce corn could only power roughly 6% of all cars in the US. Add to this fact that the production of corn ethanol results in higher food prices, increased air pollution, increased water consumption, and water pollution, it is obvious that the risks of becoming completely dependent on corn ethanol are not only unfeasible but also too costly to the environment.