Corn ethanol is the fuel du jour. It’s domestic. It’s not oil. Ethanol’s going to help promote “energy independence.” Magazines trumpet it as the motor vehicle fuel that comes from the “Midwest rather than the Mideast.” But is it really? There is plenty of corn, to be sure. American farmers grow about 42% of the world’s output. It’s the single largest crop on earth (the sugarcane crop is larger, but it contains more water). In 2004, U.S. corn output could have fed the entire population of China. However, a mere 2% of U.S. corn goes directly to feed people; another 19% goes into processed foods (e.g., the high-fructose corn syrup additive in almost every processed food product in our supermarkets). The majority of U.S. corn goes to feed livestock, even though corn makes cattle sick and produces antibiotic-resistant bacteria.