[timbo]

I don;'t think it takes a rocket scientist to work out that if you suddenly put extra demand on an already existing crop that it will cause price pressure all round.

My company makes starch based packing pellets as well as polystyrene ones. While not a good as the oil based veriety, they do have the plus side of being fully biodegradable. The added demand that has been placed on the crops used to create the starch, has caused us not just a few issues. One of the #1 factors in this is the increased cost due to Ethanol production. (Rockjock - even one of your web sites touts that Ethnol production increased the value of feed grain to farmers).

It's also going to put pressure on other crops as farmers are swapping out from whtever that had origianlly grown, and now producing feed grain.

Not sure if this is a truth or propaganda, but there is alos a fair bit of protectionisam going on as well - Brazilian sugar cane based ethanol is not allowed to be sold here as it would provide too much unfair competition to our home grown veriety. They have been producing this stuff for decades and so realy know what they are doing.

Personally I'm against the stuff as Ethanol gas rots my classic cars fuel system. I'd rather not have to keep re-building it.