[FRIAM] My biggest complaint about ethanol as automobile fuel

[Bill Eldridge]

>> Sorry to switch subjects, but from Steve Boyan:
>>
>>     I was wrong. If I had known that for every pound of beef I did not
>>     eat, I would save anywhere from 2,500 to 5,000 gallons of water, I
>>     would have been moved.
>>     
>
> Why doesn't a pound of beef cost more than 2500 gallons of water? 
> Wouldn't ADM (or whoever cares for the cow) have to pay for that much 
> water?  To make a profit, wouldn't they have to charge more than their 
> costs?
>   

Or get subsidized to overcome their losses. A few Web stats, no big 
effort made to make these all fit together.

UK: Of cattle farmers' total income of £2088 million in 2003, £928 
million came by way of subsidies from the taxpayer.

*A new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) concludes 
that the federal government spends at least $144 million each year 
managing private livestock grazing operations on publicly owned land, 
but collects only $21 million in grazing fees---for a net loss of at 
least $123 million per year.
*


        Livestock Subsidies by year, U.S. Total

*Year* 	
	*Livestock Subsidies*
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*1995* 		$63,337,904
*1996* 		$84,507,627
*1997* 		$95,932,136
*1998* 		$8,415,538
*1999* 		$398,067,655
*2000* 		$195,705,068
*2001* 		$434,176,774
*2002* 		$976,319,902
*2003* 		$343,713,808
*2004* 		$27,041,523
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Total* 	
	*$2,627,217,935*


        Programs included in livestock subsidies

*Program* 	*Total Payments
1995-2004*
Livestock Compensation Program 	$1,107,734,541
Emergency Livestock Feed Assistance 	$983,735,045
Livestock Emergency Assistance Program 	$165,414,024
Cattle Feed Program - Nonfat Milk 	$136,704,376
Small Hog Operation 	$122,136,782
Livestock Indemnity Payments 	$62,519,442
Livestock Relief 	$25,288,004
American Indian Livestock Feed Program 	$18,972,053
Emergency Feed Grain Donation 	$3,505,281
Livestock Indemnity-contract growers 	$1,073,848
Livestock Indemnity Prog - Authorization 	$134,539


   1. Most federal public lands grazing occurs on Bureau of Land
      Management (92% of BLM lands *1* ) and U.S. Forest Service (69% of
      USFS lands *2* ) in the arid intermountain West, from the Sierras
      in California and the Cascade Mountains in Oregon and Washington
      to the Great Plains (generally the 11 western states).
   2. Most public lands grazing is to raise beef.


   3. Federal public lands supply only 2% of total livestock feed in the
      United States.
      *3*
   4. In arid environments, droughts are more common than not.
   5. An average of 13.7 acres are required to feed one cow and calf for
      one month on all Bureau of Land Management rangelands; *4* only 2
      acres are required to feed one cow/calf for one year on farmlands
      in the East. *5*
   6. As much as 79% of the nation's livestock forage is grown east of
      the 100th meridian. *6*
   7. Only 6% of livestock producers west of the Mississippi River graze
      federal grazing allotments. *7*
   8. *Approximately 42% of the domestic beef cow inventory is within an
      area experiencing a moderate or more intense drought.
      *

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