Archer Daniels Midland
Obama Reality Check - Ethanol Edition
How does rewarding big, subsidy-sucking agricultural corporations equal “change from the bottom up”?
December 18, 2008 | Read More
The “Free” Market Loves “Free” Government $$
The markets boom on the promise of another taxpayer windfall.
December 8, 2008 | Read More
A Deserving Victim Of The Crash
An AP article out yesterday says that many ethanol plants, which have popped up like warts in the last few years, are being shuttered. Good riddance.
October 9, 2008 | Read More
Bailout - Follow the Money
Despite all the talk of putting country before party in recent days, a group called MAPlight.org [Money and Politics: Illuminating the Connection] has shown that legislators who voted yes on the House’s bailout bill on Monday received 54% more campaign contributions from banking and securities firms than those voting against it. Among Democrats, yes voters took in twice as much from the financial sector than those who voted no.
October 1, 2008 | Read More
Kill the Corn Ethanol Boondoggle
Corn-belt states like Iowa and Nebraska and agribusiness giants like Archer-Daniels-Midland love ethanol. They make billions from it. Much of that money comes directly from taxpayers in the form of subsidies.
All that cash might be worth it if ethanol actually did something significant to solve global warming or end our reliance on foreign oil. But it does neither. Even if every acre of corn grown in America went to make ethanol, it would only fill a small fraction of our oil needs. And it takes so much energy to produce a gallon of corn-based fuel that it barely decreases greenhouse…
August 27, 2008 | Read More
Reason #79: Ethanol, Another Phony Solution
Another stupid idea that politicians like to pitch is filling our tanks with corn ethanol. But again, it’s nothing but another boondoggle that lets politicians act like they’re doing something about our energy needs.
First of all, corn ethanol is horribly inefficient. Turning an ear of corn into fuel costs more than a dollar a gallon and it eats up almost as much fuel as it yields. What’s more, it corrodes pipelines, meaning every drop of it has to be hauled to the pump in tanker trucks. So we not only burn tons of energy just to make the stuff, we…
August 27, 2008 | Read More
Reason #38: Big Stories Blacked Out and Buried
“The news is what we tell you it is.” - Fox News executive.
There’s no doubt that the corporate-owned press ignores tough, complicated issues because they aren’t ratings blockbusters. But there’s another, darker reason for this media blackout. Often, broadcasting certain scoops will reflect badly on the government or big corporate powers - sometimes even the very companies that own the networks and newspapers. Those stories, more often than not, wind up on the cutting room floor instead of in our living rooms or on the front pages where they belong.
General Electric, which owns NBC, has a long history of polluting. In…
August 26, 2008 | Read More
Reason #36: Cornfed - Big Business’s ‘Socialist’ System
The former chairman of agriculture giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) once quipped that “the only place you see a free market is in the speeches of politicians … this is a socialist country.” We rarely get to hear our corporate or political leaders speak so candidly about the way our so-called capitalist system works these days.
Family farmers and small businesses in this country still have to play by the rules of the market. They try to make an honest profit on the crops they grow and the goods and services they sell. But for big business, the rules are different.…
August 26, 2008 | Read More
