[LUconn]

a gallon is $4.50 at Walmart. I blame this on Al Gore.

[Knucklehead]

I blame it on greed. OK, I'll go with Gore to>

[El Scorcho]

I blame it on greed.

True. Big Dairy is all about the cash. They'd sell skim milk to an infant if they thought they could make a profit on it.

[blwall1416]

Best alternative...not by cost, but by health. Plus, you can sell your shares when your done.

http://www.hedgebrook.com/cowboarding.asp

You can think of it this way if you like, although you are not purchasing the milk: after you purchase your share(s) in the cow, the price of milk is about $5.25 per gallon ($24 per month boarding divided by 4 weeks = $6.00). Compare this to the price of Horizon organic milk—about $3.50 per half-gallon or $7.00 per gallon—and Horizon milk is ultra-pasteurized!

[Ed Dantes]

I blame it on greed.

True. Big Dairy is all about the cash. They'd sell skim milk to an infant if they thought they could make a profit on it.

Yeah, I know. No one complains about how farmers will dump milk down the drain to artificially drive up the cost of their product. But if gas was going for $4.50 a gallon, you wouldn't hear the end of the whining about how the economy sucks (and then you'll see the same people pay for a $7.00 latte at Starbucks).


Seriously though, LU Conn is on to something. I do blame Al Gore (partly) for the high milk prices. I did a story about this for CBN News a few months ago -- food prices are on the rise because of our nation's idiotic push for ethanol.

Ethanol, some wrongly believe, is supposed to be the substitute for gasoline and wean us off of foreign oil Unfortunately, ethanol sucks. It takes seven gallons of gas to make eight gallons of ethanol, and if you put ethanol in your cars, you're car will get about 70 percent as many miles per gallon. It's just not efficient. If you wanted to replace America's oil supply with ethanol, you'd have to have corn fields on EVERY arable place of land in the US -- including your front lawn.

Now. Because of the high demand for ethanol, because the wet-your-pants congressmen don't want to offend the environmentalists and drill for oil in Alaska*, the price of corn has gone up. Corn is used as an animal feed. If it costs more to feed Mrs. O'Leary's cow, anything that cow produces is going to cost more (higher cost of beef and such). And this effects every area of the supermarket, too.




*Back in the 70's, we allocated a piece of land inside an area of Alaska called ANWR for oil exploration. The area of land in question is basically surrounded by tundra for miles on all sides. It would take up as much of land in ANWR as a tennis court would take up in Central Park. Yet the enviro's won't let us drill for oil. They say it damages the eco-system and the kill the caribou population. Well guess what -- in nearby Prudhoe Bay, where there is drilling, the caribou LOVE it! Why? Well, the oil pipeline running through the area makes it warmer -- and the caribou like to, uh, mate there.

[LUconn]

^ agreed somewhat. I've read a lot about how Brazil is able to be completely self-sufficient on ethanol that the produce through sugar. Apparently this is the most efficient way to produce ethonal but corn is of course america's thing so the midwest feels the need push corn ethanol on us. I don't think we have the right climate for sugar, but if Brazil has such an abundance of it, I would rather import their sugar instead of middle east oil.

[RagingTireFire]

I've read a lot about how Brazil is able to be completely self-sufficient on ethanol that the produce through sugar.

So they don't use gasoline in Brazil?

[LUconn]

well no. I think the ethonal fuel is made partially out of gasoline.

[El Scorcho]

I don't think we have the right climate for sugar, but if Brazil has such an abundance of it, I would rather import their sugar instead of middle east oil.

Can't do that. The corn industry in America won't allow it. There's a reason we use high-fructose corn syrup instead of sugar in soda these days. The corn industry lobbied for it and they don't want Brazilian sugar clouding up their market.

Because of a system of price supports and sugar quotas imposed since May 1982, importing sugar into the United States is prohibitively expensive. High-fructose corn syrup, derived from corn, is more economical since the American price of sugar is artificially far higher than the global price of sugar and the price of #2 corn is artificially low due to both government subsidies and dumping on the market as farmers produce more corn annually. The food industry turned to HFCS as a substitute, with both Coca-Cola and Pepsi switching to HFCS in 1984.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fructose_corn_syrup

Ethanol is a bad idea all the way around. I was being a bit sarcastic about "big dairy" earlier, but the agricultural lobby is obviously pretty powerful. Using food for fuel just doesn't make sense to me.

I think the answer to our energy crisis lies in the nuclear power industry and electric vehicles. Major advancements have been made in nuclear reactor design, and yet the United States has been able to take advantage of any of those because of environmental groups working everyone into a hysteria over what now amounts to pretty much a no-risk situation. No new nuclear reactors were built in the U.S. since the early nineties (the last came online in '96). There is currently one under construction in Texas, I believe. From what I understand about modern pebble bed reactor design, there is pretty much no risk. Alternatively, if you look at what's being done with the modern take on breeder reactors (nuclear reactors that produce fuel at the same time they consume it), there's also the option for pretty much no nuclear waste. (Although, currently, the U.S. government isn't too keen on power companies producing new nuclear material. Pffft.) After Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, I know the granolas have an influential voice when it comes to nuclear technology, but there's pretty much no reason for us to fear it anymore. France is running a great deal of their nation on nuclear energy quite successfully.

Anyway. There's my $0.02.

[RubberMallet]

well no. I think the ethonal fuel is made partially out of gasoline.

i read it takes almost 2 gallons of gasoline to make 1 of ethanol....

[HenryGale]

FYI...milk is only $3.23 or so at Sams. Save a dollar per gallon.

[mrmacphisto]

Sugar is the new oil.