"The Nation That Destroys the Soil, Destroys
Itself"
By DENNY HALDEMAN
Once again, we find our political leadership united
around a very bad idea, ethanol and other biofuels to
help gain "energy independence," to "help
farmers" and most importantly, to help citizens
avoid the harsh reality of peak oil converging with
unsustainable lifestyles. It is understandable that the
politicians must pander to the corn growing states in
anticipation of election cycles. Politicians have always
been prostitutes for votes. Even the most enlightened,
progressive, and thoughtful of them have fallen prey to
this cornographic behavior.
While some crops are superior to others and forest eating
cellulostic ethanol technology scams are still in
development, corn ethanol primacy is devouring the
nation's alternative energy focus. Billions of taxpayer
dollars are being thrown into this unsustainable
technology and we subsidize each gallon of auto alcohol
to the tune of 51 cents per gallon. The ethanol fumes are
leaving us drunk on delusion, ignoring the consequences
and refusing to face the future when the oil dries up.
To grow enough corn for ethanol to replace our oil
addiction would require approximately 482 million acres
of cropland, exceeding the current total of 434 million
acres of cropland used for all food and fiber. This does
not even account for projected growth of oil consumption
in the U.S. There is already the push to put the marginal
Conservation Reserve Program lands, vital for wildlife
and water quality and quantity, into intense energy crop
production.
Old school ethical farmers in the corn belt are already
lamenting the destruction of soil saving windbreaks, some
planted during the CCC years, the plowing under of
hayfields to corn, highly erodable hilly lands being put
into corn, and water drainages being reduced, hearkening
back to the depression era insanity that squandered so
much vital topsoil. Cellulostic ethanol scams will fare
even worse for the soils as "residues" are
scooped up, leaving virtually nothing to feed back to the
soil.
"The nation that destroys its soil, destroys
itself," said President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In the rush to burn our nation's dwindling soil
resources, corn is king. Corn devours soil nutrients at
12-20 times the rate of soil renewal, meaning it is
already a highly unsustainable crop. Corn is also highly
dependent on fossil fuel based fertilizer and pesticide
inputs. With the inevitable hybridization and Genetically
Modified Organism corn crops, the soil nutrient depletion
will accelerate. The Corn Cartel, led by the likes of
Archer Daniels Midland and Monsanto, have been working
for decades on their plans for corn dominion over the U.S.
and are now reaping record profits and subsidies.
Meanwhile, back on the farm, in addition to the land
ethics meltdown, prime farmland prices have soared, rents
have become prohibitive to all but the largest
agribusiness operations, and again, the small farmers,
the backbone, are being winnowed out like so much chaff.
Seed, fuel and fertilizer costs are rising to meet the
increased profit per bushel and farmers find themselves
back on that familiar treadmill, the promise falling
short as it always has.
In a land already plagued with poisoned groundwater, the
incidence of atrazine and other poisons will only become
more pervasive. Aquifers, already drained faster than
recharge will only dry up faster in direct proportion to
our ethanol consumption. It takes around 8,000 gallons of
water to produce a gallon of ethanol from corn and each
gallon of it leaves eight gallons of toxic waste sludge.
Even in the land of 10,000 Lakes, Minnesota is
experiencing water shortages from the ethanol production
explosion. With 99% of corn production under intensive
fossil fuel nitrogen fertilization regimes, there is a
directly proportionate resulting contamination of surface
and groundwater and growth of the dead zones where our
rivers drain.
Depending on if you believe the science of the Corn
Growers Association or scientists from Cornell University,
corn will produce slightly more energy than is required
to turn it into ethanol or substantially less. Having
monitored the bioenergy crowd for a decade, repeated
inquiries into true sustainability have been met with
deafening silence. There is no ethanol plant in operation
that can plant, grow, harvest, transport, process, and
transport it's product on ethanol alone and still show a
profit. It cannot be done given today's economics.
Ethanol also contains only 70% of the energy of gasoline.
Therefore, it takes much more ethanol to go a hundred
miles than it takes gas, undermining the 10 cent price
difference at the pump that seems like you are saving
money and the earth. Ethanol blends also evaporate far
more readily causing a toxic nauseous moment at the pump
and increasing ozone pollution. With the EPA poised to
adjust ozone pollution standards to actually protect
people, and Chattanooga's history of barely tolerable
air, it is unconscionable for the ethanol bandwagon
committee here to be falling for this scam.
Today, communities across the cornucopian landscape are
fighting proposed ethanol plants on issues from water
consumption, water quality, noxious fumes, noise, traffic
safety, and other quality of life issues.
Meanwhile, back at the grocery store ...
Do we feed cars or ourselves. To fuel the average
American consumer's driving habits would require 11 acres
of cropland per year, the same cropland that could feed
seven people for a year. Already we've seen tortilla
riots in Mexico and other places where corn is a food
staple and the 60% price increase is prohibitive for the
least affluent amongst us.
Ethanol primacy is in direct competition for the dairy
and animal industry. In the US, the USDA projects that
the wholesale price of chicken will be 10% higher this
year, the price of eggs up 21%, milk 14%, beef 6% and
this is only the beginning. Other food crops like
soybeans, wheat, barley are being plowed under to feed
cars instead. Already in Germany there is a shortage of
barley leading the good Germans to fear for the future of
their beer. In Mexico, blue agave tequila plantations are
being burned and plowed under for corn, leaving those in
Margaritaville far less happy while on vacation. And
again, the small farmers of the US and elsewhere will be
washed out as agribusiness always wins like the other
Casinos do.
After we do the inevitable Enron-style bailout of the
ethanol scamsters, we will be left with soils so depleted
of basic nutrients, that any subsequent food production
will be lower in nutrients, adversely affecting human and
animal health and well being.
Indonesian and Brazilian rainforests are falling for
ethanol and bioenergy production, slavery is making a
comeback, peasants are being driven further into the
forests, paramilitary corn cartels are stealing land in Columbia,
endangered species are on the run and unmindful consumers
of the over-developed world keep on consuming with nary a
thought.
The ethanol scam will only accelerate global warming. As
forests are cleared, more carbon is released than could
ever possibly be avoided by burning ethanol. The mere act
of using ethanol as a panacea to keep consumption and the
American Weigh alive and unwell, will keep consumers
unmindful and uncaring. Politically, that is what this
whole snake/corn oil boondoggle is all about. To
paraphrase the Jack Nicholson line..."We can't
handle the truth..about corn, peak oil, unsustainable
lifestyles and how we're ripping off future
generations." The switchgrass crowd, biodiesel
crowd, and others intent on devouring soil and
landscapes, might be somewhat less devastating, but the
same problems will exist to the degree that the earth's
ability to support us declines and the other degrees
continue to rise.
Now what ...
If we poured trillions of dollars in subsidies to the oil
and corn industries and untold resources into truly
sustainable technologies, we could actually avert the
worst case scenario of the end of oil and ensuing chaos
and anarchy. Hard-Pour Cornography has us all cornfused
for now, as our politicians and policies pander to the
oil and corn cartels. Consumption based taxation on
fuels, vastly improved mileage standards with current
technology and technology in development, supporting
improvements in solar, wind and storage technologies, car
pooling, a conscientious and ethical public, combined
with our ingenuity and technical prowess, we could
develop truly sustainable options without a noticeable
impact on our sacred standard of living like we're the
only creatures on the planet.
There is a reason that Toyota is now the biggest auto
dealer in the US...innovation and mileage. The Chevy Volt
is promising to get 150 mpg, mostly driven by
electricity. Solar technology is on the verge of becoming
competitive to the earth raping, subsidized technologies
of ripping mountain tops off for coal, mining and leaving
nuclear waste for 10,000 generations to deal with, and
oil wars that kill and maim millions. Decentralized solar
and wind could power virtually all of our current home
and transportation needs. If we quit driving our food an
average of 1,500 miles per bite and bought locally, lived
within our means as communities and individuals, we might
find an actual higher quality of life as we re-create
communities based on our old values of taking care of the
planet for future generations, living by the golden rule,
and being tough enough to figure things out and do right.
Just sit down by your car and take a swig of your
favorite ethanol beverage, share a shot with your SUV,
and ponder ways to avert disaster and the bad-mouthing of
us by who is left of posterity.
Denny Haldeman can be reached at: dennyh@bellsouth.net
This essay originally ran in the Chattanoogan.
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