Food Chain Solutions

Current technology offers real alternatives that can become a part of an overall solution to food chain cost issues. Badger State Ethanol corn processing improvements have made significant improvements to this important issue.

Everyone needs to understand that this world we live in is both starch abundant and protein deficient at the same time.
Starch alone will not sustain life… but protein can.
The process of creating ethanol from corn only uses the starch while the important protein, vitamins and minerals pass through to become important sources of sustainable food.

Producing Ethanol Is Not The Problem It’s Part Of The Solution

Trend line yields show that high tech genetics is helping farmers produce vastly more corn off acreage nowadays. Whereas 100 bushels of corn per acre was the average yield back in 1993, it is approximately 200 bushels today. In the not too distant future that figure is projected to increase to 300 bushels per acre. Also, it is estimated that the US Ethanol Industry's share of global grain supply is only 3%--leaving 97% for other uses. Clearly such figures would seem to allow for ample supplies of grain being available for domestic and international uses related to food, feed and fuel.

Don't forget that ethanol is produced from field corn fed to livestock, not sweet corn fed to humans. And, it is important to remember that one third of our corn is used to produce value-added protein-enhanced feed products (with one third going towards ethanol and one third resulting in C0₂.)

With our enhanced dry mill process the production of ethanol doesn't take any important product out of the food chain but rather puts a value-added product (protein) back in. With the world already deficient in protein, not starch, BSE not only expands the supply of protein but also concentrates it in order to make the product's protein level higher.

Making Dollars & Sense Of Food Costs

The cost of corn plays a very minor role in the cost of processed food. Most of the cost comes from processing, packaging and shipping—all of which are affected by energy costs in general. See example at right and also the illustration below from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) which shows "Where Your Food Dollars Go."

It is our belief that making ethanol is making the world a better place to live, and neither deprives people of food nor drives up the cost of food.

image courtesy of www.foodpolitics.com/2011/02/usda-recalculates-distribution-of-food-dollar/

It defies common sense to point fingers at farmers for driving up food prices when they receive less than 12 cents of every food dollar.
It is estimated that 98% of corn-growing land in the US is used for field corn production and 2% for sweet corn production. Field corn is harvested when its kernels are dry and hard whereas sweet corn is picked while the kernels are tender and eaten as a vegetable, rather than a grain.

It requires .63 lbs of corn to produce one 12 oz. box of Corn Flakes. Based on an average 2010/11 cost of $7.50/bushel, the value of corn in that box of cereal is 12 cents.