[husker boxster]

A very high percentage of corn (maybe 70-80%) that is raised is not used for direct human consumption (ie corn on the cobb, Green Giant canned corn, etc). It's called seed or dent corn and it's not edible. Dent corn is used in lots of food products as high fructose corn syrup.

Farmers use lots of land that wasn't farmed in the past because they have to make up for the land they lose to urban expansion. Plus they grow more per acre now than they did in the past. With the advent of all the massive machinery, farmers can farm more land than in the past, so there are fewer farmers needed and former farmsteds can be plowed over and used as farm land.

When it comes to ethanol, the real issue is how much energy it takes to create the ethanol that is mixed with gasoline. It takes more energy to create the blend than is saved by using it. But they use natural gas to create it, which is "unlimited". It's like all the smarties in their electric cars that use coal to create their electricity. Without govt subsidies, creating ethanol would not be financially feasible. But the govt sees it as a chance to con people into thinking they're saving 10% of a finite commodity. The farmers are happy because they have an additional mkt for their product, which drives the price of their product up. The ethanol plants get money from the govt. Once everyone involved gets on the dole, it's hard to take it away. These people vote. Recall this was an issue before the IA caucus. But the IA winners pandered to the people and the subsidies remain.