Mourning Daily Musings

Here is the numbers: The Agriculture Department reports that farmers intend to plant 92.2 million acres of corn this spring, a 5 percent increase over last year. That would make it the second-biggest corn crop since 1944, after a record-setting planting in 2007.

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Is the “bigger corn crop” for food corn? Or is the “bigger corn crop” set aside to become fuel additive corn? I was told that ethanol blended in gasoline decreases the MPG efficiency of the vehicle. It costs more to the consumer in the long run. For instance, it must be transported by truck. It takes MORE energy to produce than it creates. A limiting factor to is it depends on a one season crop. ( What if corn fields flood, suffer drought, severe wind storms, cold etc..)

Using it makes SOOOO much sense to take a food crop for humans and livestock and turn it into a fuel additive. IF we must have ethanol to thin the gas, then why not use something like switchgrass? Switchgrass—a native North American perennial grass (Panicum virgatum) that often grows on the borders of cropland naturally—and proving that it can deliver more than five times more energy than it takes to grow it. Growing and harvesting switchgrass should not in any way contribute to the rising costs of our edible food, which corn is, and switchgrass is not! This could be win-win. There are alternatives out there… We do not have to use corn as a additive fuel.

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On a side note: We most likely will keep using corn for fuel because our government wants to increase the ethanol blend to 15% from 10%.

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Lets get back on track…. Do you think that the increased corn crop will be used for human consumption or for fuel?

– MD