Crossposted from Town Called Dobson & My Left Wing
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Ethanol is not the be-all solution to our energy problem. You could plant all of the U.S. in corn and still not have enough to provide all our energy needs, if you used sugar cane, those figures would dramatically improve. However, corn-based ethanol is a great way to make changes NOW. America has an ungodly infrastructure to grow, harvest and transport corn. Using that corn for ethanol is no-brainer. Plus it helps family farmers… a group the government has habitually abused for decades.
From CNN:
In Nebraska, 84 percent (56 out of 67) of the counties of under 10,000 residents lost population. Kansas lost 28,392 in non-metro population, Iowa 21,697, Illinois 18,673 and North Dakota 17,866. Almost all the farm communities in the Midwest experienced similar population stagnation or loss.
According to Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, ethanol is now revitalizing many of these rural communities – and not just in the Midwest.
There are already about 100 U.S. ethanol plants in operation, up from 50 in 1999, and 78 more are under construction, reports Dinneen. They range from Texas and California to New York and Florida. They use corn, sorghum, soybeans and other crops to produce ethanol. Development of practical cellulosic ethanol production plants (from switch grass, corn stalks, municipal solid waste and other sources) is underway.”
Anything that keeps our money OUT of the hands of Middle-East Dictators and Theocracies is a very good thing.
What a great synergy – increased sustainable energy and revitalization of small, depressed communities.
An even better thing would be to let farmers grow hemp for fuel among other things…uses a fraction of the water corn does, doesn’t deplete the soil, has double the growing season and many other benefits. The continuing illegality of being able to grow hemp here is a real crime due to the stupidity of legislators and the idiotic ‘war on drugs’.(and the timber industry which lobbied and persuaded congress to make hemp growing illegal to protect the timber industry)
There’s some research being done on Prairie Grasses that shows great promise. Greater energy outputs with much less inputs than corn requires.
I’m with chocolate ink on this one.
I’ve got a very big spiritual/philosophical problem with turning millions of acres of farmland into corn-for-fuel land.
why?
firstly: ethanol is not the big win-win solution agribusiness giants like ADM says it is, simply because it takes too much energy to make it.
secondly: we have numerous people in the U.S. and around the world going hungry every day. they don’t need corn for ethanol– they need FOOD on their tables.
related to this: those of you who big pork and beef eaters (I’m not) look for the price of meat to go up due to the fact corn which is fed to farm animals is already increasing in price– thus pushing up the cost of meat. this hardly helps point two above.
There is no such thing as too much hemp!
One of the things that concerns me is that apparently a tank of ethanol for your standard SUV would be the equivalent grain for a year’s worth of food for a human being. As I remarked elsewhere, when we get to a point where we’re seriously thinking of trading a year’s food for a human being for a tank of ethanol, we’ve crossed some twisted ethical line. Instead, we need – like yesterday – to start planning for a life without the automobile as we know it. Just sayin’.