Originally Posted by gpsman1

Yes, and no. Yes, it could be used "whole" to feed livestock, but as it turns out, this is a poor choice. Livestock cannot really digest whole kernal corn ( and now that I think of it, neither can you and I ) so it must be ground into meal or flour first, and mixed with other feedstock as well.
Guess what? Ethanol plants GRIND the corn, and then they use ENZYMES to break down the starch into simple sugars. The enzymes happily ignore the protiens and fats ( aka corn oil ) in the corn. That ground up, partially enzyme digested corn mash, with all the vitamins and minerals and protien and fat still intact comes out the back end of the ethanol plant. This "distiller's grain" is like baby food for cows. Healthy, palatable, and easy for the cows to digest. ( makes them fart 60% less methane too, but I digress... ) A 50 MGY ethanol plant will grind about 2000 pounds of whole kernal corn per minute, and manufacture about 1300 pounds per minute of animal feed out the back end. This animal feed has more calories per pound than whole kernal corn, and sells for about $75 per ton, where as whole kernal corn costs about $150 per ton. What do you want to use to bulk up your cattle for market? Food with lots of starch? Or food with lots of protien and fat? Well, to help you make up your mind, starch has 4 calories per gram and fat has 9 calories per gram. The high fat food is half price too.

And NO. NONE of the corn used in the ethanol industry is "food grade" and NONE of it (legally) is ever used for distilled spirits for human consumption. At least not in the U.S. I can't speak for Russia.



It's not all about being palatable. It's about being fit for humans.
Would you eat corn with mold or fungus? No. But you can make ethanol with it, and ethanol plants buy damaged corn when they can because it is cheaper.

Would you eat corn that was irrigated with grey water, brown water, recycled water, or sewer water? No. But you can grow corn with this sewer water or unfiltered swamp water and use the corn for ethanol. I don't think the U.S.D.A. allows you to grow food with pig urine. But hey, it's high in nitrogen, and corn will grow off it. You can make ethanol with that unfit for humans corn.



Hey, I'm all for it. That would be a cash cow. Didn't you ever hear of CRV? California Redemption Value? 5 cents a bottle baby, 5 cents a bottle...