Something like 1% of corn grown in the U.S. is used to feed people directly. The majority of it is used to inefficiently make gasoline (via ethanol) or plastic, because farm subsidies make it profitable.
While ethanol requirements are a hand out to corn farmers, it’s false to say the majority goes into gas and plastic, an equal share (~40%) goes to animal feed.
And growing at that scale makes that 1% super affordable as a food source. all these 'we need AI data centers at crazy huge scales' people suddenly don't understand scale when it comes to feeding the brokies.
Subsidizing ethanol doesn’t seem like an efficient way to subsidize food for poor people- that’s why programs like SNAP exist
I agree. I’m pro-data center (or at least not against), pro-farm, and anti-ethanol. Ethanol is a scam.