Too Much Corn?

is ethanol a new recipe for the same over-dependence?

Endless fields. You have no doubt seen them while driving through Minnesota. Last year those fields contained 7,300 acres of corn and 7,350 acres of soybeans. This year, there were 8,400 acres of corn and only 6,250 acres of soybeans. While those fields might still look the same to the average person, that’s quite a shift in planting. Why so much corn all of a sudden?

“I just watched my corn get loaded up and sent to Japan,” says Lamberton, Minn., farmer Leonard Runck. His corn is not going to be eaten. Instead it will be turned into fuel – more specifically, ethanol. This is a relatively new trend, since corn and soybeans used to be exported as commodities.

In agriculture, diversity is sustainability. For the best results in production, corn and soybeans should be rotated regularly and equally to preserve the land. With ethanol’s increased popularity, more corn has been grown and soybean crops have decreased. While farmers care about the productivity and efficiency of the land, they also care about something else: money.

Though most people have heard of biofuels, there may be some important background information they are unaware of. Petroleum, which is not a biofuel, is highly compressed carbon found deep in the ground. It is separated into two different substances: gasoline, which most cars run on, and diesel, which powers larger industrial vehicles. When gasoline and diesel are burned as fuel for these vehicles, carbon (CO2) that was once stored underground is released into the atmosphere.

Biofuels are derived from plants and often called “cleaner burning fuels.” In fact, biofuels don’t burn any cleaner—they release the same amount of CO2 into the atmosphere. The difference is where the CO2 originates. When a plant makes biomass, it converts CO2 from the atmosphere into plant matter. Then the plants are burned as biofuel and they release that same carbon back into the atmosphere. Because of this, biofuels are considered carbon neutral; they don’t increase the overall carbon levels in the atmosphere.

Ethanol is a substitute for gasoline made from grains. Right now, only the starch found in plant sugar can be used as fuel. It takes too much energy to convert the starch from the cellulose of the entire plant—stem and leaves—into ethanol. In the United States, ethanol usually comes from corn, but it can also be made from sugar cane. Scientists are currently trying to find an enzyme, bug or energy source that would enable the whole plant to be used. That way, ethanol production can be more efficient.

Biodiesel, a replacement for diesel, is derived from soybean oil. Soybeans are legumes and therefore don’t require a nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrogen fertilizers needed by other plants take a lot of CO2 to make. Because of this, soybeans make more “sustainable sense.” Unlike Europe, cars in America don’t run on diesel.

With ethanol subsidies and rising prices for corn and soybeans, these farms are flourishing more than normal in Minnesota. Farmers started practicing more environmentally friendly techniques like no-till farming and cutting back on the use of atrosine—a herbicide that proved potentially harmful to amphibians. After being heavily used on corn, it was found in many water supplies, but used at a reasonable level, it seems safe.

“When farmers realize there are problems, they’ll change,” says Dr. Paul Porter, a University of Minnesota agriculture professor that specializes in sustainability.

As long as farmers are responsible, why shouldn’t Minnesota grow corn and soybeans? This is, after all, where corn and soybeans want to grow. Twenty-eight counties in the upper Midwest—including 12 in Minnesota—have 85 percent of their land occupied by corn and soybeans. The other 15 percent is roads, lakes and rivers. This is a dramatic increase from 25 years ago.

“Is that good?” Dr. Porter asks. “When is it too much? When have we become too dependent? We used to be more diversified.”

This overdependence on one region’s product seems frighteningly similar to another substance: oil.

America does not have to cover itself in corn and soybeans to support the biofuel industry. There are, of course, other places where biofuel materials flourish. Brazil has a naturally long growing season and, in 2006 they passed up the United States as the world’s number one exporter of soy. And though they have strict environmental laws, 17 percent of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has been cleared for farmland. The Nature Conservancy reports that by 2050 an estimated 40 percent will be lost. This dramatic deforestation contributes to climate change and species loss and, most would say, offsets the benefits of biofuels.

As for the actual production of ethanol, there are serious environmental concerns. Ethanol plants require a large amount of water. In the Midwest, this is not so much of an issue, since we have an abundance of fresh groundwater. But it is an issue when plants are built in western states like the Dakotas or Nebraska, where water shortages are frequent. Unfortunately, these plants are quite desirable; they are economic development engines for small communities.

“It is a huge deal for 40 jobs to come to these places,” Runck says.

He also contends that new ethanol plants are very environmentally friendly, especially to the groundwater supply. “Sure, prior ethanol production used too much water. Modern developments have led to the use of recycled water from cooling towers.”

While biofuels do seem to alleviate some environmental stress, there is a larger issue.

“Ethanol will not solve the problem,” Dr. Porter says. “There is too much consumption.”

He went on to emphasize that though there has been a history of Third World countries aspiring to follow America’s consumerist path, this must stop. There is just not enough earth left to sustain us all.

“In students’ lifetimes, there will be major changes,” he says. “Challenge assumptions. Vote with knowledge and elect people who can make the world a better place.”

In essence, an educated life is a more sustainable life. It is impossible to understand the big issue if you don’t know the basic facts behind it. Using biofuels will help, but it is not the end-all for America’s oil dependency. There is only one solution: less consumption. a

Amanda Maly