Ethanol affects
food prices
Sen. Ken Salazar told a group locally that the recently enacted Farm Bill, with huge grants for ethanol production, would “help us grow our way to energy independence.” Actually, the energy cost of producing ethanol appears to exceed the value of energy that ethanol produces.
But the issue that A Voice of Reason raised with Sens. Salazar and Allard and Rep. John Salazar focused on our concern that ethanol production, and the concomitant reduction in food production in the United States — and in Brazil, Britain and elsewhere — is having a profoundly negative effect on food production and the cost of food in the United States and, more disastrously, in some 20 poor countries around the world.
Rep. Salazar responded in writing to A Voice of Reason and maintained that ethanol had little effect on food supplies because the “corn used to produce ethanol is not used for human consumption.” But he must know that that same corn is used to feed animals, which become food or produce milk or eggs. More importantly, given huge subsidies for ethanol, everything made from corn and everything that could have been grown for food is taken out of the food supply.
The Salazars are not being real with Coloradans.
A confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian in London finds that global food prices have been forced up by 75 percent as a result of biofuel production.
We simply cannot allow our gluttony for fuel to result in poverty and starvation across the world. Ethanol subsidies must be halted. Renewable energy, which the Salazars do support, and deep conservation are the only options for us right now.
NEVILLE WOODRUFF
and five others
A Voice of Reason
Grand Junction

Right balance is needed
for drilling
With regard to the July 15 article about the Udall/Schaffer debate, I believe senatorial candidate Mark Udall’s reference to “more drilling” was taken out of context.
Udall stated that “more drilling” should occur on the 68 million acres for which oil companies already have leases. Udall has also emphasized how we need to diversify our energy portfolio, with responsible development of energy resources. He has also stated that we need to find the right balance in developing these resources responsibly, and we cannot drill our way to energy security.
The right balance consists of a multitude of energy sources, including oil shale, solar, biomass, wind, natural gas and cleaner burning coal. To complement the supply side of energy, we must also look at demand, and focus on ways to lessen overall consumption.
Diversity and creativity are key to resolving our energy woes, and senatorial candidate Mark Udall has demonstrated he is a proponent of both of these.
ELIZABETH ROWAN
Grand Junction
Country can’t afford
McCain presidency
An action request by VoteVets.com prompted me to write this letter. Recently, I attended a rally for Obama at Lincoln Park. The message there was to keep the campaign positive, and to limit comments in letters to the editor to positive things about the Democratic candidate.
The VoteVets request flies in the face of that advice. So, first, my apologies to the Obama campaign organizers in Mesa County. But McCain saying, in testimony to the Council on Foreign Relations, that we can just “muddle through in Afghanistan” without a large number of forces needs to be reported to Mesa County voters.
The plotters of 9/11 are in Afghanistan and/or Pakistan, not Iraq. If we want to fight terrorism, we need to go after the terrorists, who are building strength in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, not that you would know it by any broadcast news.
We can’t afford to muddle through this mess, and we can’t afford a president who thinks we can. This country can’t afford a John McCain presidency.
CLAUDETTE KONOLA
Grand Junction

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