Reply #7: Ethanol fuel is like going through your ass to get to your elbow.

[Bread and Circus]

First off, going to Brazil for "cheaper" ethanol defeats the purpose of energy Independence, which is Ethanol's only limited positive benefit. Secondly, ethanol is just a round about expensive way of storing solar energy and the only reason it is being promoted is because it stands to make some people rich and it seems to garner political support from Iowa. My concern regarding any biomass type fuel is that it would probably strip the land of nutrients driving higher needs for fertilizers, pesticides, and water. I wish we'd seek better ways to the energy directly from the sun.

Also, the reason why milk is so damn expensive has alot more to do with the "middle man" than the production of the milk itself. Farmer's get pennies on the dollar to produce (er, get their cow to produce :) ) and sell milk. I didn't read the article in entirety but I'd be surprised if the article doesn't talk about that.