Ethanol and PLA can be made from the common 'field' corn grown in massive amounts already. This is generally GM corn (i.e. Monsanto RoundUp Ready). This is what the chicken or cow lived on before you paid to have it butchered for you, so any ill health is now concentrated in the tissue. GM corn is also available as 'sweet' corn, the kind people eat directly (eg corn on the cob).

Thanks to Monsanto and our corrupt US government, GM corn does NOT need to be labelled as such. Corn, HFCS, and other corn derivatives are in the majority of pre-packaged foods available in your supermarket. Anything from soda to babyfood to bread may have GM corn in it somewhere.

“PLA reduces food supplies, reduces corn or other food crop exports to countries that need them,”

We already grow enough food to feed EVERY person on the plant and have some left over. Why are people starving? Because 60-80% of our grain crops (depending on type) are thrown away as animal feed, not provided to people. Even better, our tax dollars (Farm Bill) subsidize the animal feed industry. We're promoting animalfeed/ethanol over growing food for people! So a little extra of this cheap surplus corn diverted to plastics isn't a big deal. If people really did care about excess pollution or 3rd world hunger, a much much bigger difference we can all make is cut back on the amount of meat/dairy we eat. A pound of grain can provide a pound's worth of food for people… a pound of steak took away 7-10 pounds of grain and gives us with a product high in sat fat, excess pollution, manure runoff, BGH, antibiotics, etc.

The reason I like it is not about landfill space, but about the countless bags that end up blowing free. Many end up in waterways to float downstream and kill marine life. As the floating plastic from bags & bottle breaks into smaller pieces, it's accidentally consumed by fish and other marine life. It injures or kills some. Others become laden with the toxic compounds in plastic end end up on our dinner tables.
http://patagonia-under-siege.blogspot.com/2008/...

I'd like to see all plastics taken off the market and replaced with re-usable items or a plastic that breaks down quickly outdoors.