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This Month Poll: How Expensive would Gas Have to Become Before You Change Your Driving Habits?

01 June, 2007 08:00:00

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Corn has about doubled in price during the last few months, thanks to an increasing demand for ethanol — the mostly corn-based alternative fuel that burns cleaner than oil and, ideally, could one day reduce American dependence on oil imports.

And with ethanol production taking an increasing percentage of the corn crop, farmers are hard-pressed to meet the traditional demand for corn as food stuff for human or animal consumption, even though the Agriculture Department predicts 15 percent more corn will be grown this year than last.

With Detroit now talking up the merits of "flex-fuel" cars that could run on ethanol, distilleries that make the stuff are sprouting across the Midwest like so many corn stalks. All of which is great — if you grow corn.

But if you're a dairy farmer the higher corn prices are no cause for celebration.

Cows are animals that just love to eat corn feed -- corn protein helps produce better milk. But the higher corn prices mean that a diary farmer has to pay almost double this year for the corn feed they gives his cows.

Some farmers say they may well have to reduce their herd, which means "there'll be less milk produced because of the price of corn. That's the bottom line."

While there are 40,000 members of the American Corn Growers Association, there are 300 million consumers in this country — all of whom get their food from supermarkets. And that supermarket checkout shock that they're going to be getting as a result of diverting so much grain to ethanol could be a political wake-up call.

US government is betting big on ethanol as a green fuel that can help make America more energy-independent.

So, we asked “Is ethanol the right choice as a green fuel?” 87% of respondents stated that ethanol is our right choice. A total of 12% of respondents stated that ethanol is not our right choice as a green fuel and 1% said that they don’t know.

Obviously, this isn’t very good news for diary farmers and US consumers.

This month poll is about our driving habits.

Gasoline consumption grew last week by 1.2 percent over the same period a year ago, as measured by four-week periods the agency calculates. That was slightly less than officials expected, which they attributed to the piercing of the psychological barrier of $3 per gallon.

Give us your opinion!!!

What do you think: How expensive would gas have to become before you change your driving habits?

*note: this poll will last until June-30-2007

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