Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Everytime I hear more hype about ethanol from corn I shudder

And another reason to is that farmland prices in the heavy corn growing parts of the country are going up. Today's NY Times report is a helpful introduction.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/08/us/08farmers.html?ex=1344312000&en=94cca7faa376dd69&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Imagine! Land near ethanol plants going up as much as 30% in one year.

One of the effects of this is that the generational transition of farmers, in trouble all ready, is in worse shape. Young farmers cannot afford land. Minority farmers cannot afford land. People who'd like a small farm for diversified agriculture can't afford land.

And what happens when the corn-based ethanol boom crashes?

Will we get an energy bill through the congress that has stricter mileage standards for cars and trucks so that we'll have some land left to grow food?

1 comment:

Ormonde Plater said...

Another effect of corn-based ethanol has been increased amounts of nitrates carried down the Mississippi and dumped off the coast of Louisiana, further messing up our ecology.