... to eliminate industries harming our environment is to support organizations searching for practical alternatives.

We could easily make the nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer industries -- and all of their nasty by-products, including habitat destruction, pollution, and financial support for irresponsible politicians -- go away by combining organic farming and genetic engineering.

Grist recently presented information about efforts to modify rice so farmers can reduce the need for nitrogen fertilizer by almost 50%. Fewer chemicals. Lower costs.

Others are conducting the same sort of research to reduce the need for inorganic phosphate. See...

Alan E Richardson, Paul A Hadobas, Julie E Hayes (2001) Extracellular secretion of Aspergillus phytase from Arabidopsis roots enables plants to obtain phosphorus from phytate. The Plant Journal 25 (6), 641-649.

Available at...

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-313x.2001.00998.x

I was a little worried when I saw the organization's name: CSIRO Plant Industry. But I was relieved to see this stands for "Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation", Australia's national science agency. CSIRO sponsor's research assessing the causes and implications of climate change, as well as efforts to combat it...

http://www.csiro.au/science/ClimateChange.html

Which might be easier: combat corporate greed by creating a better product or change the politcal arenas and voter mentality that permits corporations to run roughshod over our natural world?

So the entire corn ethanol industry is dependent upon the production of fertilizer and phosphate. Fertilizer depends upon cheap natural gas and electricity both to make the production possible. As soon as any other use for that natural gas can outbid fertilizer plants the plants close down. Phosphate production depends upon cheap diesel fuel to run the mine. Diesel fuel shortages are showing up in odd corners of the world and don't seem to be going away.

Organic corn will quickly begin to replace standard ag corn as the cheaper input costs will soon pay for the extra labor and production required by organic production. What it's not likely to do is provide feedstock for ethanol plants.

After all if the goal was to provide starch for ethanol production sugar beets, potatos or even pumpkins can outproduce corn on a per acre basis. But that's not the goal.

The goal of all of this is to provide a channel that turns federal subsidies into profits for corporate CEO's. The very best way to do that is to pump up the stock and then sell before natural gas prices slam the fertilizer business. The farmers win, the CEO's win, the politicians win it's all good.

That is unless you are one of the poor sods whose mutual fund or IRA invested in ethanol plants and the fertilizer business. They get handed the empty sack once again.

Put the Carbon Back

of biofuels.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world