Many people, including scientists and some big companies believe that we are running out of oil. What oil there is, is located mostly in very hostile environments. One possible alternative to oil is ethanol. Lately, there has been a high demand for ethanol. Even U.S. President George W. Bush said “We must continue investing in new methods of producing ethanol…” Ethanol is primarily made out of corn. The more demand there is for ethanol, the more expensive corn becomes. But ethanol is not the only product made out of corn. So are corn tortillas. Over the last six months, the price of corn meal for tortillas in Mexico has doubled. Most Mexicans rely on corn tortillas to keep from going hungry. Entonces: many Mexican families are now worried about going hungry because we may be running out of oil.
Plus, I remember reading somewhere that corn takes out something like five bushels of nutrients out of the soil for every bushel produced. How long would it take to turn a country into a desert with our current rate of fuel consumption? Chances are, we would grow it in countries where land and labor is cheap, meaning – as with land used for livestock slated for American fast food – that farmlands and access to food sources will be even scarcer in developing nations. We would be shifting the misery and depredations created by our oil wars to another theater, probably throughout Latin America.
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