[quote=@catchamber] I'm not laughing at their deaths, I'm empathizing with their suffering. Also, So, your argument that they were completely oblivious to the idea of wheat being turned into a fuel is complete bullshit. [/quote] The difference here is that there wasn't a push to improve pure biofuels like there is now, because as was said earlier, gas was ten cents a gallon. And besides, do you really expect EVERY SINGLE IMPOVERISHED AMERICAN FARMER to start a biofuel business in the middle of the great depression? Because there certainly isn't a massive existing industry for that. They'd have to start their own refineries while their family starves. The usage of new technology doesn't end all problems, it has to go hand in hand with human activity. And in the great depression, nobody is going to expand into a fairly niche refining industry that's in its scientific infancy (this is important-we didn't instantly learn everything about biofuels in 1826. We realized that they could be a thing, and we are still learning how to get the most out of them even now). Not to mention that this is literally the second paragraph from that same source: "Today’s ethanol industry began in the 1970s when petroleum-based fuel became expensive and environmental concerns involving leaded gasoline created a need for an octane. Corn became the predominant feedstock for ethanol production because of its abundance and ease of transformation into alcohol. Federal and state subsidies for ethanol helped keep the fuel in production when ethanol prices fell with crude oil and gasoline prices in the early 1980s. This also helped spawn the “Minnesota Model” for ethanol production, in which farmers began producing ethanol to add value to their corn (Bevill, 2008). The Minnesota Model was an agreement between local public and private parties who work to keep profits in the community by providing jobs (and the economic benefits associated with population) and adding value to agricultural products while strengthening rural communities. Ethanol’s use as an oxygenate to control carbon monoxide emissions, encouraged increased production of the fuel through the decade and into the 1990s." I'd also like to point out that "Sucks to be an idiot farmer" is among the least empathetic phrases you could have possibly used in this situation. Saying that you're showing empathy after saying that is the same as saying you empathize with poor whites in Appalachia after saying "Sucks to be a stupid hick".