But unlike MTBE, ethanol is not a carcinogen.
What drives up food prices is the falling value of the dollar, called inflation. Beef is easily double the value of a few years ago, on the hoof, Pork is about 40% higher, and poultry is about 20% higher, with overall consumer food prices up about 15%. But corn is the same price it was 20 years ago. there have been some fluctuations in corn price, for sure, due to a drought a couple of years ago, etc. But the price has been fairly consistent on average since the Clinton administration. Kinda hard to justify that ethanol production drives up food prices. And not sure how it would anyway. Only a portion of a kernel of corn is used for ethanol production. Most of the kernel is actually used for other things, primary high protein feed supplements.
Roughly 15-20% of the U.S. corn production is actually used for human consumption. Of the 80% left, only 40% of the that is used for ethanol production, and 80% of that corn is also made into other feed products. Only the starches and sugars from the kernel are needed for ethanol production.
If it is so expensive to make, then why is it cheaper on the exchange market than gasoline? No, it is not because it is subsidized, because ethanol producer subsidies were eliminated over 2 years ago. Ethanol as a commodity on the futures exchange markets was $2.082 on Friday June 20. Gasoline was $3.122. Sounds pretty competitive to me.
Sure, it is not the "perfect" fuel, as there is really no such thing. All fuels have their positives and negatives. But it is a good fuel in the right application. After all, when GM and Ricardo can design a V6 3.2L EBDI engine that gets the same HP and Torque as the 6.6L Duramax diesel, and do it on E85 and get better economy, I would say that E85 has a place in the fuels game.
I can understand that some have some personal bias against ethanol, and that's cool. Personally, ever since I read a Popular Mechanics article where they took an AMC V8 and converted it to hydrogen, much the same way that you would convert to propane or NG, I have been chomping at the bit for a hydrogen internal combustion engine along with a reliable source of hydrogen to fuel it, so I have no love affair with ethanol or gasoline.