Comments potatofarmer has made

Give Corn Ethanol a Chance

Mr. Greyflcn,

I drive down the road with my ethanol converted E-85 2000 Subaru.  I got off my petro addiction - well at lest I'm 85% there.  I doubt you are off the petro - am I right?

First Law of Thermodynamics - read it.

Corn is the most efficient solar energy collector on the American farm.  We can grow it using organic nitrogen which we call manure (or some farmers may prefer to use human excrement - plentiful in China but concentrated near US cities and off limits to US Farmers).  We can drive our tractors using biodiesel to harvest the crop - 100 years ago we used another renewable power source known as horses.

Now, sir, we only extract the seed of this most amazing plant and use it for food, feed, or fuel.  In Washington State, we can take a renewable resource such as water pumped into irrigation pivots powered by renewable hydropower.  This process yields over 260 bushels of corn per acre or 14,560 pounds of food per acre.  Using hydropower and wind we can heat boilers to produce 4,853 pounds of ethanol and 4,853 pounds of cattle feed that will be eventually converted to meat or milk.  The remaining 4,853 pounds is CO2 emitted into the atmosphere to be used by corn plants next year - remember Co2 is the air plants breath. It's the addition of co2 from our petro addiction we must be concerned with, right?  

Now cows eat the feed produced from the byproduct of the corn to ethanol process.  What about the energy to be collected from the cows such as methane and manure that the animals emmit?  What about the energy from human waste gases and excrement caused by the consumption of milk and meat?  What about accounting for the energy btus of the heat generated off animals and humans that have consumed "corn to ethanol" byproducts aka distillers grain?  And going back to the corn crop itself, what about the corn stalks that cows digest all winter in the corn field and account for the energy from the corn stalks transferred to animal heat, animal waste gas, animal manure, animal meat and milk and the energy from the human consumption of those ag products?  Then you go back to what is left of the corn plant in the field and look at the remaning stalks and roots that are disced back into the soil to add to the soil "bank".  That is right! more corn energy to be used by other crops next year - just disc whats left in the ground.  

Now you say it is wrong to farm the CRP in Washington.  Go look at the ground - its is full of weeds.  And your concerned about emitting co2 into the atmosphere by turning the soil for crop production?  Are you using petro in your car, Sir?  Shouldn't we all be more concerned about adding additional co2 that has been locked away for millions of years?  And furthermore, shouldn't we be concerned about the fuel that is being used in your car coming from the Middle East?

You have a petro addiction Sir.  You will diss corn ethanol and American farmers with your mouth full while driving your car with Middle Eastern crude oil shipped half way around the world while your car is emitting additional co2 causing Global Warming.

I'm very happy when driving my used car with ethanol - at lest I'm not an Enviromentalist hypocrite!

Green Greed makes Greed Green