The Earth Policy Institute reported this week that the 107 million tons of grain that went to U.S. ethanol distilleries in 2009 was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels.

In Nebraska, the USDA reported that corn for grain production in Nebraska last year was estimated at 1.58 billion bushels, up 13 percent from last year and a record high.

In 2007, Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) that mandated production targets for “renewable fuels,” mainly biodiesel and ethanol. The bill mandated ambitious production targets of 9 billion gallons of biofuels a year in 2008 and rising to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022. Corn ethanol is capped at 15 billion gallons a year in the law.

Last year, Chief Ethanol Fuels in Hastings celebrated its 25th anniversary. The plant, which opened in 1984, was Nebraska’s first ethanol plant. Since then, Nebraska now has 23 operating ethanol plants produce 1.7 billion gallons of ethanol using about 600 million bushels of corn.

According to the Nebraska Ethanol Board, as of September 2009, 70 percent of motor fuel sold in Nebraska contained ethanol. Sneller said Nebraska ethanol generates millions of dollars of economic activity by exporting 96.2 percent of its 1.7 billion gallon annual production of Nebraska-produced ethanol out of state.

Nebraska ranks second nationally in ethanol production.

The EPA is considering a proposal to boost the amount of ethanol allowed in gasoline from 10 percent to 15 percent, which could lead to an increase in ethanol production.

Earth Policy Institute said that more than a quarter of the total U.S. grain crop was turned into ethanol to fuel cars last year. With 200 ethanol distilleries in the country set up to transform food into fuel, the amount of grain processed has tripled since 2004, EPI reported.

According to EPI, the United States is the world’s leading grain exporter, exporting more than Argentina, Australia, Canada, and Russia combined. In a globalized food economy, increased demand for food to fuel American vehicles puts additional pressure on world food supplies.

According to EPI, even if the entire U.S. grain crop were converted to ethanol (leaving no domestic crop to make bread, rice, pasta, or feed the animals from which we get meat, milk, and eggs), it would satisfy at most 18 percent of U.S. automotive fuel needs.

EPI said that the amount of grain needed to fill the tank of an SUV with ethanol just once can feed one person for an entire year. According to EPI research, the average income of the owners of the world’s 940 million automobiles is at least ten times larger than that of the world’s 2 billion hungriest people.