Americans who buy meat and those who raise livestock may pay for the current ethanol boom.

�Consumers will pay most of the bill,� said Vernon Eidman, a University of Minnesota professor known for his work on ethanol economic issues.

Ethanol plants are sprouting up like the corn they use to produce the motor vehicle fuel. The demand for corn will be so high that it will force up the price of many grains used to feed livestock and, thus, the price of meat in grocery stores, Eidman said.

Source. And in other news, the sun came up this morning...

Governor Pawlenty is challenging other states to boost their ethanol consumption. He told a meeting of the Governors' Ethanol Coalition that the corn-based fuel will reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil. The group consists of 31 states and five countries that support ethanol. But unlike Minnesota, few of them mandate ethanol use.

Minnesota was the first state to require that all gasoline sold in the state contain 10-percent ethanol. Montana and Hawaii have passed similar laws, although they haven't gone into effect yet. This year, Pawlenty pushed for doubling Minnesota's ethanol mandate to 20-percent by the year 2013. He says the events of the last few months have made it clear that the nation must reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.

"I think seeing Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita, instability in the Middle East and $3 or $4 gas has hopefully shocked us all to say, "Hey, we gotta do something and do it better than we have in the past," says Pawlenty.

Judi "E-85" Dutcher could not be reached for comment.