Inliners International Forums General Discussion Bench racing Ethanol, E85 for fuel ???

Hello Everyone,
I wish to say that I am sorry if you thought that I had any negative ideas or an axe to grind as I shared my thoughts about what I was reading here. I just start to add up the hidden cost to produce vegation such as corn and soy, then when I think of a farmer having to invest a half to three quarters of a million dollars in equipment to competively produce crops plus the cost of buying or renting land plus the cost of trucking of seed, fertilizer,herbicides and ect to field then product to market which might be a long way to mfg point. I begin to wonder what the true cost will be and how many people have that kind of capital to invest. The day of a man farming with a three bottom plow and a two row planter is long gone. The crops will be grown by large corporations who have to make money for their investors (isn't this what the oil companies just said about their large profits?) and the prices will go up and then we will discover that these large companies are owned by rich foreign oil sheiks. In todays world the small farmer that farmed 100 acres 60 years ago would make enough profit to buy his health insurance maybe. In todays world most farmers that are successfully supporting a family on the farm have a college education and have more money invested in their bussiness than we have the courage to think about.
These farmers can tell you what the true cost of planting a crop and getting it to the market will be almost to the penny. They can tell you if the rain or the tempatures are up or down what the result will be. This is how they make the judgement of when to replant a lost planting or when to cut their loses and hope for next year. If you want to do a interesting project in your spare time. Find out how many bushels of corn can be grown on an acre of ground, then check the market value, then add up the cost of planting and harvesting and hauling. see what your net difference is then decide if you would purchase a 100 acres to set your son up in bussiness plus co sign for used 30 to 40 year old equipment. You don't have to tell me the answer, I already know it, my family farm was sold for a high dollar sub-division thirty years ago. A friend of mine still owns 83 acres that he cash rents to a guy that farms about 1800 acres, he gets $7000.oo a year and does bettter than he ever did farming it after expenses. Another friend still owns 60 acres that he share crops with a large acreage farmer, this years when all the crops were sold and he settled up his half of the seed and chemicals he was only around $700.oo in the red (we had a bad weather year here last year) This is what scares me about E-85 cost going up in the future. Also if it requires special additives in the motor oil what are their effects on the evviroment going to be. If it is like;y to draw more moisture what will that do to our vehicles and the list goes on and on. I can only say that I hope most of these concerns are unfounded but I think they need to be considered. Another example was when the feds broke up AT&T we were going to see cheaper phone service, did any of your phone bills go down?
God's love to all,
Big Bill