Great comment from a friend of mine who works in ICE development:
"The govt. greatly subsidizes corn which not only has been used for fuel, but has become a large portion of the US daily food intake..Corn and corn syrup has make it into so many different foods that it plays a large role in our obesity. I just do not get it.. The govt. wants the US to lose weight, yet the corn subsidies increase every year… The govt. wants 35.5 mpg by 2016 and 54.5 mpg by 2025, and at the same time wants to hinder this by increasing the ethanol content of the fuel. It is just bass ackwards..."
So what you're saying is that you don't understand the thought processes of politicians?
This really should in be Off-topic, since it will get political in a hurry.
That said, the issue is that looking at this using logic won't work. Logic isn't at work here, only profit, greed and politics.
Much like the asinine California smog rules, instead of being concerned about the tailpipe emissions only, they focus on visual inspections, which just penalize older cars that are hard to keep stock due to a lack of parts and help try to kill the car culture in California that helped make much of the tax dollars that built LA and other areas. Certainly, LA's air has gotten cleaner, but I think that is despite their stupid rules.
NOHOME
Dork
3/26/14 10:39 a.m.
My reading has run across the observation that the majority of corn grown in NA has no nutritional value to humans as it is grown. You would starve in the field. It has to be chemically processed into sugars that the body is supposed to work with. Only the body is not all that happy.
Corn sugar is bad for us. It is in 75% of everything in the grocery store. We are dinked.
Having said all that, people are on average, still living longer so what does that say? As our food gets worse our Medical gets better?
In reply to NOHOME:
The social acceptance of drinking all day and smoking like a chimney tapering off around the same time everything became corn might have something to do with it.
The place I work in makes food product. To see the corn syrup arrive by the tanker load makes me sad. 
N Sperlo wrote:
So what you're saying is that you don't understand the thought processes of politicians?
That would imply politicians have a thought process.
MadScientistMatt wrote:
N Sperlo wrote:
So what you're saying is that you don't understand the thought processes of politicians?
That would imply politicians have a thought process.
that implies that politicians have thoughts
N Sperlo wrote:
So what you're saying is that you don't understand the thought processes of politicians?
Bingo. :-) And yes, this should have gone off-topic, my apologies.
What I really want to hear is a rational, thoughtful, factual input from someone who thinks corn in their food is great and loves ethanol in their gasoline. OK, so there was a tiny bit of snark there...
Kenny_McCormic wrote:
In reply to NOHOME:
The social acceptance of drinking all day and smoking like a chimney tapering off around the same time everything became corn might have something to do with it.
The way in which we drink corn has changed. It used to be fermented into bourbon, now they process it into sugar.
Actually, that's an interesting point. We used to run our cars off of gasoline, and drink our fermented corn. Now the cars run on fermented corn and we just get the mutated sugars they extract from the corn.
volvoclearinghouse wrote:
Great comment from a friend of mine who works in ICE development:
"The govt. greatly subsidizes corn which not only has been used for fuel, but has become a large portion of the US daily food intake..Corn and corn syrup has make it into so many different foods that it plays a large role in our obesity. I just do not get it.. The govt. wants the US to lose weight, yet the corn subsidies increase every year… The govt. wants 35.5 mpg by 2016 and 54.5 mpg by 2025, and at the same time wants to hinder this by increasing the ethanol content of the fuel. It is just bass ackwards..."
Well, one thing with the fuel economy standards that is regularly missed- that goal is with gasoline. Not for the fleet mileage, but to reduce our usage of imported oil. That's why when the CAFE standards came out back in the 70's, methanol and ethanol are not includes in the number.
So if you get 35mpg on gas, but 33mpg on E10, it's treated more like 38mpg, since the mileage for the gas is better. That's why you saw so many Flex Fuel pick ups- they got something close to 70mpg for the fleet on E85.
The whole fascination with corn production sources from the corn states, regardless of party. Bob Dole was great at doing that.
Not that it makes all that much sense, since the EPA did a study showing that we don't have enough corn production to support more than E10.
People say they want jobs and money in the USA. Our climate is much more suitable for corn on the scale that we consume it, though sugarcane is also grown throughout southern parts of the US and in HI. Corn-derived sweeteners are also more readily soluble in liquids.
This isn't just effecting things in the US.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/05/30/idUSN2924142520070530
Think of the Tequila!!!
In reply to Mitchell:
Asbestos is a good, cheap, extreme temperature insulator, which can be mined at multiple locations in the USA, should we start using that too?
Kenny_McCormic wrote:
In reply to Mitchell:
Asbestos is a good, cheap, extreme temperature insulator, which can be mined at multiple locations in the USA, should we start using that too?
It makes a great brake lining, too!
mad_machine wrote:
MadScientistMatt wrote:
N Sperlo wrote:
So what you're saying is that you don't understand the thought processes of politicians?
That would imply politicians have a thought process.
that implies that politicians have thoughts
Politicians have thoughts, they are just mostly about how to get reelected and all that entails(like paying back campaign contributors).
Kenny_McCormic wrote:
In reply to Mitchell:
Asbestos is a good, cheap, extreme temperature insulator, which can be mined at multiple locations in the USA, should we start using that too?
If it wasn't ruled unsafe by whatever government agency, I'm sure we would! Just as corn will probably remain the processing sweetener of choice until: a.) regulations make it unable to be sold; and/or b.) it becomes more expensive than sugar cane, beet, agave, honey, or whatever other sweetening agents exist, and/or c.) customers decide to change their consumption habits, or simply stop purchasing products sweetened with HFCS.
It is counter intuitive. Like I always say "follow the money" 
Remember the person who passed tighter fuel efficiency standards isn't the same guy who wanted to use more corn.
I am having to deal with this right now at work, long story, but the point is, you see the Government like you see a person. That Person/Government did this, that is stupid. Yes it is stupid, because the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing.
Once I repeated this fact, which I know you know, but like myself and most others, aren't really conscious of without focusing on it, you get much calmer about the whole thing and realize, "should have check the manual first before I made a decision."
So repeat after me, "Our government does not know what our government is doing nor has done. This is my fault because I continue to vote the same way/don't vote. I understand I need to either be quiet and accept it or drag everyone I know to vote/vote opposite of how we have always voted. I will call my politicians when I am upset and will get my friends to as well. The government is multiple people and multiple problems and like cockroaches you can't get rid of just one and fix the problems."
Living in the middle of corn-country, I can remember way back when the first Farm-Aid happened to support all the farmers who were losing their farms. Now I look around at all the farmers I know, and they generally seem to be doing pretty well. Certainly weather conditions, and generally running their farms like a business has gone a long way toward their success. Though it seems some of the government programs have likely helped too.
The good news is I not aware of any farmers still getting subsidies to not plant their fields, so at least they're producing something.
I guess maybe I should have studied agriculture...
The government wants people to pay taxes and not overthrow the government. They also want some other lesser things which are necessary so that people can pay taxes and not overthrow the government.
is it too much to ask to be able to get some NON GMO corn based ethanol to fill my prius with?!?! Berkeley you Monsanto
Moved to Off-Topic. 
Keep calm and carry on.
