- In 2007, Congress passed a law requiring gasoline to be mixed with ethanol, to reduce dependence on foreign oil and promote environmentally friendly biofuels
- Corn is the primary source of ethanol in the United States, and this, ironically, has turned out to have devastating consequences for the environment
- In response to rising demand for corn, American farmers are converting environmentally valuable grasslands into corn fields
- In 2010, for the first time, fuel was the number one use for corn in America, which means agricultural subsidies are now in large part being used to subsidize our energy needs rather than food
