• Liz@midwest.social
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    4 days ago

    People listing Hawaii like they could meet the total US demand, even if they could scale to maximum production overnight.

    Most of the corn we eat is Brazilian. Most of the corn we grow is feed corn for cows and process corn for HFCS and other processed food ingredients.

    • Johnmannesca@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      As an American born and raised in Illinois I can also inform the rest of the populace our corn also gets used to make ethanol, an alternative fuel source.

      • chaogomu@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Ethanol is incredibly inefficient as a fuel source.

        If not for the massive subsidies it would not exist.

        Still, ethanol is a better fuel additive than lead. (Both reduce knocking)

        Still, the far better use is to grow food.

    • Bluefalcon@discuss.tchncs.de
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      4 days ago

      Im guessing they also never seen how much the coffee from there cost. Plus supply and demand you dumb fucks. The cost will skyrocket. Kona coffee ranges from $30 to $100 a bag. Think of a massive increase of demand. Are we going to pay $100 a bag for low end stuff?

    • MacN'Cheezus@lemmy.today
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      4 days ago

      Hawaii does have the largest coffee growing industry in the entire US but they are severely limited by the amount of available land. Compared to other coffee-producing nations, the Big Island is microscopically tiny, so they mainly focus on high quality, artisanal product sold at extremely high prices. Not that I would mind if all the coffee sold everywhere would be replaced by Kona coffee overnight, but it just isn’t feasible.