Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra feature stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write a 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: Ethanol Fueling Higher Food Prices, 09/17/07
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/july-dec07/ethanol_9-17.html

Initiating Questions:

1. Where does the gas that fuels cars, trucks and buses come from?

2. Other than oil, what other raw materials can be turned into fuel?

3. What is ethanol?

4. What factors can contribute to a rising cost of agricultural products?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. What is ethanol? Why is it becoming more popular?

Ethanol, a clear, sugar-based alcohol that can be used as a substitute for oil, is attractive to both consumers and politicians because it can be produced domestically and from renewable sources.

Ethanol producers also claim that the fuel is better for the environment, though some skeptics counter that the ethanol production process actually consumes more energy than it saves.

2. How is most ethanol in the United States made?

Though it can be made from almost any feedstock with an appreciable sugar content, the United States makes most of its ethanol from corn.

The corn is ground and mixed with enzymes and yeast to ferment it and produce ethyl alcohol, or ethanol. The ethanol can be mixed in varying quantities with gasoline to produce a cleaner-burning fuel for cars.

3. What role has the federal government played in the increased production of ethanol?

Ethanol has been around for decades but has benefited in recent years from federal support.

The National Energy Bill passed by Congress in 2005 requires refiners to increase ethanol production from the current 4 billion gallons per year to 7.5 billion gallons by 2012.

President Bush highlighted ethanol in his 2007 State of the Union speech as a way for the United States to reduce its dependence on oil from the Middle East.

4. What percentage of the U.S. corn harvest is dedicated to ethanol production? How does this compare to 2000?

Currently, ethanol production uses about 20 percent of the U.S. corn harvest, three times the amount dedicated to biofuels in 2000. This number is expected grow significantly by the end of the decade.

5. What has happened to the price of basic foods like cereal, bread, milk or beef?

This, in turn, has led to a price increase in foods made from corn, including breakfast cereals, which are up 4.2 percent, according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a government statistic that reflects the price of household goods and services.

And many livestock feeds are also made from corn, contributing to higher prices of beef (up 5.8 percent) and milk (up 7.5 percent).

Some farmers are shifting their fields from wheat and soybeans to corn to take advantage of the rising prices and the generous government subsidies for ethanol production.

Lower supply has driven up the price of crops that would have been grown in place of corn, including wheat and soybeans. The CPI reports that the price of wheat bread is up 6 percent.

6. What are some potential sources of ethanol production, other than corn?

U.S. and international ethanol producers are already investigating alternatives to corn, including prairie grass, miscanthus and switchgrass.

Brazil, the world's second largest ethanol producer, makes most of its ethanol from sugarcane.

Panda Ethanol, based in Texas, makes ethanol out of cattle manure.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. Make a list of ethanol advantages and disadvantages. Do you think ethanol production should be subsidized by the government? Why or why not.

2. Research corn production in your state. Do farmers grow corn? What is it used for? Talk to a local farmer, has the demand for ethanol affected his or her work?

3. Write down everything you've eaten in the last 2 days. How much was made from corn, wheat, meat or milk? Have you or the person who purchased the food you ate noticed prices going up? If you haven't noticed prices going up, what would be a noticeable increase?

4. What happens when families pay more for food? How might this affect the economy?

Write a 300-500 word essay on any of the topics in this exercise providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra (extra@newshour.org). Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.