Is ethanol a dead end?

It seems that if a manufacturer can make a car run on E85, they've
earned an official 'green' tag. AFAIK cars running on this still
produce greenhouse gases (is that right?), there are stuff-all places
selling the ****, a tank seems to take you half the distance, and if
everyone switched over to it there'd be no sugar/corn/potatoes/alpaca
goats or whatever they're currently deriving it from left to eat, and
the only way to make up the shortfall of farming land would involve
clearing on a massive scale!
Another bloody red herring!!