Corn as food or Ethanol

There has been a lot of buzz in the news lately about generating alternative forms of energy, including turning Minnesota corn crops into ethanol.

This is in direct contrast to an article from Fortune Magazine that claims that rising demand for corn based ethanol will raise grain prices and devastate the world's hungry.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that world grain consumption will increase by 20 million tons this year, roughly 1%. Of that, 14 million tons will be used to fuel cars in the U.S., leaving only six million tons to cover the world's growing food needs.

Combine this with crop failures this year in Minnesota and across the midwest where record temperatures and drought conditions are going to make for one tough situation.

For the world's poorest people, many of whom spend half or more of their income on food, rising grain prices can quickly become life threatening.

Where do we draw the line between saving the environment and eliminating hunger?

Just to be clear, ethanol isn't about "saving the environment." There is some margin of energy savings that comes from using ethanol, but once you've sprayed the corn fields with fertilizers (along with pesticides and herbicides), shipped the corn and fertilizers all around, etc. you've used a lot of fossil fuels in the process (much of which is natural gas).

Ethanol's real champions seem to be those who want to see a higher price for corn and those who don't like importing oil from the middle east. Not bad goals necessarily, but not environmentally based either. In fact, once you start looking at all of the pollution that ends up in our lakes and rivers from planting (and fertilizing) row upon row of corn, one has to start questioning any assertion that corn-based ethanol is good for the environment.

There are certainly more environmentally-friendly crops we could use to produce energy and more efficient ways we could use to feed people around the world.

ode to soy

bean pod soy grows beneath branch arch
within leaf light

separated, derived, augmented,
in full flavor, in favorite form
soy nourishes flesh and bone,
yields industrial oils, ink for advertisements
mathematics, literature, the news

in life there is suffering
there is goodness

malleable legume [papilionoideae]
wing-tight butterfly

machine spew

how bereft my ode
how full

digestion (disappearence) sings a playful (fearful) song

sing along

The American Lung Association of Minnesota is a strong supporter of cleaner burning E85 and biodiesel. The whole "food vs fuel" arguement is a false premise, no one is going hungry because Minnesota uses about 18-20 percent of its corn for ethanol production. Minnesota drivers use more biofuel per capita than any other state, we also are leaders in clean wind-generated electricity.

To learn more, see www.CleanAirChoice.org