Since corn is not the best source of sugar for producing ethanol, why not import sugar cane from Cuba?

Question

Since Fidel Castro has stepped down in Cuba and since we might finally get an adminstration in the United States that uses common sense in it's foreign policy, perhaps there is an opportunity for fair trade with Cuba. Farmers could still produce corn that would have gone to ethanol but now it could go to Cuba as an export. In return, we could import sugar cane from Cuba and maybe even become friends with that lovely island again. As agricultural and business experts, what do you think? Crazy?

Answer 1

cuba is not going to befriend  USA...

Answer 2

Here is an even simpler solution.  We can grow our own.  Sugarcane fields use to be common along the US Gulf Coast but have gradually disappeared.  It has not been a disease issue, nor pesticide nor even escalating land prices.  Rather it has been due to extremely low commodity prices and lack of available labor (even our friends in Oz have found sugarcane labor harder to secure since WW2).

Answer 3

Yes, I think the Don has hit it on the head.  The way forward is not biofuels, as these have low yields per acre, even compared to carbon capture programs that just plant trees.  Cuba could do with trade ties to the USA, though.

I'm an Aussie, so excuse the ignorance, but what did Cuba DO to the USA to make them so p***ed off?  I am aware of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the 60s, but apart from that it looks like a big guy beating up a little guy...

Answer 4

nice dream, won't happen.

Answer 5

Politics & Business !!   Says it all really !

Answer 6

I agree with Texas r, we can grow all the sugarcane ourselves.  The biggest problem with using sugarcane as a feedstock is the huge amount of bagasee left over and what to do with it.  But yes, it is much better for producing ethanol, Brazil has been doing it for 40 years now.

Answer 7

The whole point of using corn and other crops, including sugarcane, for the production of fuel is to make the USA independent other countries for our energy needs. It would kind of be crazy to shift our dependence to Cuba for a source of fuel. If we worked toward making Cuba the 51st State then you would probably have a good idea there.

Answer 8

Cuba really would not need anything like that much corn. Corn is not a very nutritious food, barely adequate for ruminants using  urea to build protein.

Cuba really needs to have more nutritious food. It might be better for Cuba to convert more sugar land to producing rice and millet, perhaps increase plantings of hemp.

But that is really independent of American appetite for motor fuel.

If Cuba attempted to sell sugar or ethanol produced from sugar cane grown on lands 'owned' by a few American companies, the money for the product would all be claimed by US owners. After all, it was nationalization of those lands and businesses that led to the embargo.

Answer 9

How much Sugar do you think there IS in the World? Certainly NOT enough to pour in everyone's gas tank & turn into Carbon Emissions! The way WE gobble up Sugar in this Country- we're lucky the Stuff isn't $5. a Pound (YET)!  :0