Not too long ago I read somewhere that eventually wars will be waged over fertile land and clean water sources. A scary thought indeed but, how close to the truth is it?
On my most recent trip I met a farmer from Iowa. I was curious if the rumors were true…is farming a lot more lucrative than it was thirty years ago? We discussed shortly the government’s interest in corn for an alternative and an answer to lessening our dependancy on fossil fuel. I wondered if that would be valuable to a farmer. She had mixed feelings on the issue. In actuality how practical is it? The College of Agricultural Sciences at PennState suggests:
Burning shelled corn as a fuel can be a feasible way of dealing with the high prices of more conventional fuels such as fuel oil, propane, natural gas, coal, and firewood. Utilizing corn as a fuel does not compete with the food supply needed for nourishment throughout the world. While it is recognized that malnutrition is a serious global problem, the world is not experiencing a food production problem. Instead the world faces political challenges associated with providing infrastructure systems for food distribution and storage.
Contemporary agricultural systems can produce sufficient quality and quantity of food for the world’s population, with additional resources available so that agricultural products can be used as fuel, pharmaceuticals, and chemical feedstocks. Shelled corn is a fuel that can be produced within 180 days, compared to the millennia needed to produce fossil fuels.
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Then I find some very helpful information from the website: howstuffworks:
With so much volatility in today’s world oil market, many are seeking out alternative fuels to power cars. Some, including corn producers, have touted ethanol is a possible alternative fuel. Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, is made by fermenting and distilling simple sugars from corn. Ethanol is sometimes blended with gasoline to produce gasohol. Ethanol-blended fuels account for 12 percent of all automotive fuels sold in the United States, according to the Renewable Fuels Association. In very pure forms, ethanol can be used as an alternative to gasoline in vehicles modified for its use.
In order to calculate how much corn you would have to grow to produce enough ethanol to fuel a trip across the country, there are a couple of basic factors we have to consider:
Let’s assume that you drive a Toyota Camry, the best-selling car in America in 2000. We know that the Toyota Camry with automatic transmission gets 30 miles per gallon of gas on the highway.
Gasoline is more efficient than ethanol. One gallon of gasoline is equal to 1.5 gallons of ethanol. This means that same Camry would only get about 20 miles to the gallon if it were running on ethanol.
We also need to know how far you are traveling: Let’s say from Los Angeles to New York, which is 2,774 miles (4,464.2 km), according to MapQuest.com.
Through research performed at Cornell University, we know that 1 acre of land can yield about 7,110 pounds (3,225 kg) of corn, which can be processed into 328 gallons (1240.61 liters) of ethanol. That is about 26.1 pounds (11.84 kg) of corn per gallon.
First, we need to figure out how much fuel we will need:
2,774 miles / 20 miles per gallon = 138.7 gallons
(METRIC: 4,464.2 km / 8.5 km per liter = 525.2 liters)
We know that it takes 26.1 pounds of corn to make 1 gallon of ethanol, so we can now calculate how many pounds of corn we need to fuel the Camry on its trip:
138.7 gallons * 26.1 pounds = 3,620.07 total pounds of corn
(METRIC: 525.2 liters * 3.13 kg = 1,642 kg)
You will need to plant a little more than a half an acre of corn to produce enough ethanol to fuel your trip.
If you think you would save any money by using ethanol, guess again. Ethanol is expensive to process. According to the research from Cornell, you need about 140 gallons (530 liters) of fossil fuel to plant, grow and harvest an acre of corn. So, even before the corn is converted to ethanol, you’re spending about $1.05 per gallon.
“The energy economics get worse at the processing plants, where the grain is crushed and fermented,” reads the Cornell report. The corn has to be processed with various enzymes; yeast is added to the mixture to ferment it and make alcohol; the alcohol is then distilled to fuel-grade ethanol that is 85- to 95-percent pure. To produce ethanol that can be used as fuel, it also has to be denatured with a small amount of gasoline.
The final cost of the fuel-grade ethanol is about $1.74 per gallon. (Of course, a lot of variables go into that number.) The average price for a gallon of gas in the United States is about $1.40 (!) as of August 9, 2001, according to GasPriceWatch.com. (imagine that! only 6 years later and the price has doubled)
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Imagine what type of demand there would be for corn to fuel a nation as big as ours. Imagine the sort of stress the soil would endure because of this demand. Essentially we would be taking valuable land and food sources to power our damn SUVs and Sport Utility vehicles, and eventually render the land completely useless. Now that’s a scary thought.
No worries. Perhaps we can help out Mexico. I recently found this article rather interesting from Oxfam:
Mexico’s 10,000-year heritage of corn production is being destroyed after just 10 years of rigged “free trade” rules with the United States, international agency Oxfam said today.
In a new report, Dumping without borders , Oxfam says that Mexican corn prices are freefalling in competition from heavily subsidized US imports. Local farm incomes are slashed, resulting in rural suffering and misery from which millions of people are seeking escape.
“The Mexican corn crisis is another example of world trade rules that are rigged to help the rich and powerful, while destroying the livelihoods of millions of poor people,” Oxfam Campaigns Director Phil Twyford said.
The US pays its corn farmers $10 billion a year which encourages them to produce a surplus that is then dumped onto world markets at artificially low prices. New Oxfam calculations show US corn is dumped in Mexico at between $105m and $145m a year less than the cost of production.
Oxfam says that successive Mexican governments must share blame for the worsening rural crisis after liberalizing the corn market with little regard for the impact on the lives of the country’s three million corn farmers.
However in May, after Mexico applied anti-dumping duties to subsidized US corn imports, the US lodged a complaint at the World Trade Organization.
“The WTO is in danger of collapsing under the breath-taking hypocrisy of its own rich members,” Twyford said.
“If the benefits of world trade are to be shared fairly – as everyone says they want to see happen – developing countries like Mexico must be allowed to protect their weaker industries. And rich countries like the US must stop subsidizing their agricultural exports.”
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Well, perhaps not.
Hey! Maybe corn isn’t the answer! Maybe the answer lies in a tree!
The other day on the news there was research into a tree: the black cottonwood. It is found in Florida. The seeds from this tree can be converted into “biomass fuel.” Researchers and Scientists are very optimistic about the discovery and are planting “trees of the future” for the future. Here is a quote from an article you can find from the Southeast Farm Press.
“Of course, vast farms of the black cottonwood would come with another advantage other than cleaner-burning, cheaper fuel — the trees, like all plants, absorb the most significant greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide. They then store the carbon in their stems, roots and the soil.”
“Basically, you would have a fuel source for our cars that, in the big picture, could help capture almost as much carbon dioxide as it produces,” said UF researcher Gary Peter. “That would go a long way in slowing the biggest driver of global warming.”
The idea was suggested that it would be the future of not just the nation but, for Florida specifically. Lessening Floridian’s dependancy on fossil fuel, and also giving the state a new and valuable revenue.
So, what is the gripe?
I know this is a start but, I think it all is INSANE! Not to mention the fear of the farming practices that would be used to gain the objective, do you really think it is possible for us to depend on our valuable land to fuel the nation? I think not! There just isn’t enough to go around. I am so happy to see a growing awareness, especially in our children about the environment and the oil crisis. It’s a shame they have to worry about it, but, it is they who will really be reaping in the benefits. The bottom line is this : We need to become less dependent on fuel and we must find alternatives. And most of all, we need to change our myopic approach to the problems at hand(.)
P.S.
(if you would like more information about how corporate globalization effects the world you may want to take a look at this: Losing the Farm
