"Corn is not a _food_. Corn is a _platform_." https://twunroll.com/article/1074810043495796736
Corn has been the platform for civilization(s) in the Americas since agriculture was invented in Mesoamerica.
U.S. corn-based ethanol worse for the climate than gasoline, study finds
61–70 of 264 posts
Re: U.S. corn-based ethanol worse for the climate than gasoline, study finds
#62As others mentioned, this is not a new finding. There is a lot of academic and industrial/economic analysis on this subject. Ethanol from corn was never a good idea economically for anyone other than corn farmers. It is also bad environmentally and places additional competitive demand on our food supply (choice and competition between corn going into food or fuel supply). Similar analysis has been done on other crop…
Corn farmers from Iowa. Where they hold the first caucus of the interminable election season. No American politician or political party can afford to offend corn farmers. We should count ourselves lucky that our gasoline is only 10% corn.
which is why the Democratic Party changed it under cover of starting with "a more diverse state"
Iowa no longer first; Democrats reorder the presidential primary calendar for 2024
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2022/1...
Re: U.S. corn-based ethanol worse for the climate than gasoline, study finds
#63Is there other crops that can be turned into ethanol that would be beneficial for the environment? Can't seem to find information on that.
Sure. As far as I know, corn is only used in the US, for fairly obvious reasons. Where I'm from it's made from carb-rich waste and sidestreams from various sources. Of course, the yields do pale in comparison to the corn megaindustry of the US, which produces more fuel ethanol than the rest of the world combined.
Sugar cane is good, and used quite successfully in Brazil, but of course only grows in sub/tropical climates. Sugar beet is used in Europe to some extent, as well as staple crops like wheat and rye – not sure how they compare to corn.
Re: U.S. corn-based ethanol worse for the climate than gasoline, study finds
#64As others mentioned, this is not a new finding. There is a lot of academic and industrial/economic analysis on this subject. Ethanol from corn was never a good idea economically for anyone other than corn farmers. It is also bad environmentally and places additional competitive demand on our food supply (choice and competition between corn going into food or fuel supply). Similar analysis has been done on other crop…
> places additional competitive demand on our food supply (choice and competition between corn going into food or fuel supply).
I'm not sure this is the case. The vast majority of corn is field corn grown for silage anyway. The ethanol extraction process leaves a mash which is then fed to cows. Given the soil conditions, corn and soybeans will likely remain the most profitable cash crops so unless subsidies are created for other crop types not much would change. My perspective from living in Iowa for 2/3rds of my life.
Re: U.S. corn-based ethanol worse for the climate than gasoline, study finds
#65Gasoline unlocks carbon that was buried underground. If we can avoid that surely its better?
On a first approximation, food production (including corn) is just channeling natural gas into fertilizers through Haber–Bosch. If the produced food isn't actually being eaten, it's just a highly inefficient energy conversion Rube Goldberg machine. Now to answer your question, food production unlocks plenty of carbon underground through natural gas.
Not to mention all of the fuel used to move around the fertilizer, tractors, finished corn, the energy used to grid/heat/ferment/distill into ethanol, and then to truck around the ethanol. It's actually almost hilariously indirect and inefficient when you think about it.
Re: U.S. corn-based ethanol worse for the climate than gasoline, study finds
#66Because farming equipment runs on gasoline.
Re: U.S. corn-based ethanol worse for the climate than gasoline, study finds
#67I still don't understand why we're still doing bio fuels. We've known for decades that they are a disaster. Am I missing something, is there evidence to the contrary? For now I can't see how we can just stop fossil fuels without starving half the world (as we need them for fertilizer production). Never mind cement, plastics and steel.
Unfortunately policy decisions seem to rarely be made based on evidence. It's a handout to farmers (and the entire ethanol industry) which politicians don't want to touch.
Re: U.S. corn-based ethanol worse for the climate than gasoline, study finds
#68Re: U.S. corn-based ethanol worse for the climate than gasoline, study finds
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Corn farmers from Iowa. Where they hold the first caucus of the interminable election season. No American politician or political party can afford to offend corn farmers. We should count ourselves lucky that our gasoline is only 10% corn.
which is why the Democratic Party changed it under cover of starting with "a more diverse state" Iowa no longer first; Democrats reorder the presidential primary calendar for 2024 https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2022/1...
> which is why the Democratic Party changed it under cover of starting with "a more diverse state"
It wasn’t because they care about offending farmers or removing ethanol subsidies, it was so that Biden can lock down some early primary wins in 2024 with States with a higher percentage of black voters.
Re: U.S. corn-based ethanol worse for the climate than gasoline, study finds
#70Given a perspective emerging from many posts, I would note:
behind the search for alternative fuels, there is the notion that reserves for fossil fuels may deplete.