Why do we have to use food crops? I thought you could make alcohol out of pretty much anything that would ferment including wood(saw dust) and corn STALKS, you just can’t drink it. Not that I would try, LOL! I might use it in my car though.
We don’t possess the technology to make alcohol out of sawdust and corn stalks anywhere near as efficiently. Two most promising areas of research are algae and switchgrass, but we’re not there yet.