Isn't the US already producing excess corn, at considerable expense to taxpayers? And isn't corn an environmentally challenging crop, in terms of both soil and water depletion and the energy cost of producing it (ammonium nitrate, pesticides, and so on)? I've seen a lot of debate about this, some on this list, and I really wonder whether corn is the biofuel we want.
Bill Silvert ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Cherubini" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU> Sent: Friday, March 23, 2007 2:25 PM Subject: Re: ethanol competiing directly with world food supply / driving up prices > stan moore wrote: > >> How much additional wildland will be put into grain production, >> at the cost of habitat for wild flora and fauna? How many >> forests will be cut down? How sustainable can this transition be? > > In the upper Midwest USA, according to some agricultural economists > at Iowa State University, "the most likely source of new corn > acreage will come from shifts in crop rotation from soybeans to corn." > http://www.card.iastate.edu/iowa_ag_review/fall_06/article2.aspx > http://www.card.iastate.edu/iowa_ag_review/fall_06/article3.aspx > > Example: instead of a traditional corn/soybean/corn/ annual > crop rotation schedule, Midwestern farmers could implement a > corn/corn/ soybean rotation schedule. I've seen evidence of this > already happening : > > 2006 photo of corn fields on both sides of a farm road in > southwestern Minnesota: > http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/mori06.jpg > > 2005 photo of the same exact farm road where you can see > (left side of photo) corn was growing on the same piece of > ground where it had been growing in 2006: > http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/mor05.jpg > > Another source of additional corn could come from the continually > increasing yields that GMO biotech corn has been generating > (e.g Roundup Ready Bt corn > http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/rr.jpg). > > Here's a graph of Iowa corn yields per planted acre over the > 1980 to 2005 crop years and you can see how yields rose > especially fast after the introduction of GMO crops in 1996 > http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k75/4af/corngra.jpg > > Paul Cherubini > El Dorado, Calif. > >
