Quote:
Originally Posted by solarguy
Dear Duffman,
While you are correct about the food distribution problem, and the hunger it causes, it does not change that fact that the U.S. used to be a net exporter of food, and we recently became a net importer. Yes, the U.S. no longer grows more food than it eats. That is not just a distribution problem. Topsoil erosion and aquifer depletion are serious now, and getting more so, rapidly.
Why waste those difficult to replace ag resources just to make ethanol from corn?
troy
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Why not? We build cities on our best farmland... the los angeles basin used to be one of the world's most productive pieces of farm land and still would be if we hadn't paved it.
As a former almond farmer (parents farm, we lived and worked onsite) my opinion is that domestic agriculture has shrunk more because of economics than because of actual capacity to produce. It's just plain cheaper to buy food from countries with cheaper fuel and labor, and of course the awesome fact that I can buy fresh strawberries and peaches 365 days a year... every Chilean peach I buy in february is one less American cob of corn I'm going to eat.
Corn isn't the only way to make ethanol, everything from municipal waste here in phoenix to johnson and switch grass in the west and giant miscanthus in the southeast are being used to make the stuff. I just don't understand some peoples' aversion to making progress in fuels. To me the most attractive feature of going to ethanol is the millions of existing vehicles on the road can be converted rather than thrown away, the drivers already know how to fill their tanks with a liquid fuel (as opposed to gaseous or other fuels) , the fuel stations already have tanks and pumps and a delivery infrastructure that doesn't care what flammable liquid it's delivering, all in all converting the whole nation to ethanol seems the most painless of all available options
and the greenest since we can just continue using all the equipment that's already out there and working.