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To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (78101)	4/21/2008 12:22:29 PM
From: Merlinson	Respond to of 116555

The food value lost in Ethanol production. When corn is turned into ethanol, only the carbohydrates ( about 70% of the corn) are changed into alcohol by the yeast in fermentation. The vitamins, protein, and minerals remain in the distiller's grain that is left over. This stuff also has dead yeast in it. The yeast metabolize the carbohydrate into alcohol until it's about 12% at which point it kills them. Yeast are very high quality protein, used in expensive weight gain powders. The distiller's grain is over 30% protein and 30% fiber, a really nutritious food. People can eat it but mostly farmers feed it to their cattle ( supplemented by hay) and other animals. The cattle gain more weight faster than when fed the original corn. If we fed it to people we would have a huge increase in available food and the ethanol too. Turning grain into meat has about a 5% return on food value, not a 5% loss, a 95% loss. So we would get about 20 times the return by not turning it into meat. But we like our steaks. ( No, I'm not a vegetarian, I like steak too. ) The question is: are we smarter than yeast?