Corn. Eat It or Burn It?

We have to admit, the following statement made by US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack last week caught us a bit off guard. According to the federal official, the supply of corn in the US is big enough to sustain more of the stuff being converted into ethanol. And now comes the question: how many of you feared you'll have no corn to eat, because some cars use the product as fuel?

To be completely honest, we never pondered that situation, simply because currently, despite all the regulations in the US and elsewhere, use of ethanol fuel derived from corn is still a rara avis. Apparently, we were wrong.

According to the data provided by the Department of Agriculture, the US burns up the corn like crazy: 13.5 billion gallons of ethanol are made from it on an annual basis. And that is only the starting point for an expanding industry, analysts say. How big will the growth be?

According to estimates, corn use for ethanol is expected to surpass the 5 billion bushels mark in 2011/2012. To make the figure easier to understand, the Department of Agriculture says that this translates into 37 percent of total use of corn and 36 percent of corn production.

So, is there anything else left to eat this year? Apparently, yes. The department estimates that 865 million bushels of corn will still remain, a 190-million bushel increase over the level projected for last year's levels. Ask anyone and they will tell you that's more than enough to satisfy the pop corn of any movie-craving individual.