Eating Corn? Would you volunter

[tgordon]

According to Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute the amount of corn needed to fill a 25 gallon suv tank with ethanol could feed a person for a year.



My question is are there any people willing to take him up on this? Including himself. This trans lates into a little shy of 9 bushels at 100%, and 7. 6 bushels at the pump standard of 85%. :--)

 

[Highfinance97]

that would be a lot of "seeing the corn twice" :-laf :-laf :-laf



LOL







Michael

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

I have mentioned in the past to those touting how the US should/could GROW all our own energy, that I don't figure that is a realistic or attainable goal - and could easily force a choice between eating or driving...



No one believed me then, either...

 

[Mundgyver]

If one does the math for the amount of fuel needed to power the country for 30 days and then the amount of usuable fuel produced via a growing method and the fuel used to grow the fuel, one will come to a very fast conclusion that we do not have enought land to farm in order to produce the amount of bio fuel that the dreamers would like



Now if on the other hand we could convert all of the energy in a square yard of sunlight with a 90% efficiency, we might have a chance

 

[DZLROKET]

Right on! SOLAR!!!! Hello?

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

Now if on the other hand we could convert all of the energy in a square yard of sunlight with a 90% efficiency, we might have a chance

Either that or BS - we could process enough of THAT right from Washington DC to power us WELL into the future... :-laf

 

[WBusa]

I expect that making fuel from food is, at best, only a step along the way to energy independence. What I really want to see... and expect to see, some day, is biodiesel produced from bioengineered algae grown on municiple wastewater. I doubt anybody will complain that we're usin' up too much poop... .

 

[zstroken]

I think that is probably a distorted view. He probably has some hidden agenda. Numbers can be played with to make them say whatever you want. I don't think corn is the food of choice for starving people.

 

[tgordon]

WB I am for anything that stops us from sending money over to the middle east. I don't care where it comes from, even if we by ethanol from Brazil. How can they fund their campains about hating the US if we quit sending them all kinds of money? :{

 

[Whiskey]

And from what I remember the goverment pays our farmers to NOT to grow corn,

Because they have a surplus for the the trading or whatever to foriegn country's.....



whiskey

 

[KLockliear]

What I really want to see... and expect to see, some day, is biodiesel produced from bioengineered algae grown on municiple wastewater. I doubt anybody will complain that we're usin' up too much poop... .

Does that mean running it will make the exhaust smell like poop instead of french fries?

 

[tgordon]

Whiskey, the last time it was in hte news, yes, as of right now the world stocks, including the US are at the lowest they have been in a long time, the last I heard the cash price is over $3. 40/bushel here and the support price where the farmer gets money is $1. 90/ bushel.



KL, I hope not that would be some crappy fuel. LOL

 

[DSpencer]

corn or whatever can be used to convert to energy reduces the amount of oil imported. Corn is just one answer. I don't think anyone but the anti corn side has made the argument that because we can't grow enough corn to use for a replacement for oil that its not a good choice. Phooey on that notion.



Nobody said that solar or thermal or wind by itself would solve all our electrical needs. These as well as nuclear and natural gas and clean coal (maybe coal) has become the answer for our electricity.



Sooooooo any corn converted to ethanol or even biodiesel is just that much oil that we don't have to import. Its just one means of getting off dino oil.

 

[CNeubauer]

Something else that should be said here is that the by-products that are produced when ethanol is made from corn is not a waste product. For cattle the by-products actually make better feed than the corn would have before it was processed. I don't think ethanol is the answer to our energy problem but it's one of the best options we have available right now and I don't think we can afford to wait until some of the other idea's are ready for the market.



Corn is a publicly traded commodity and if this guy thinks corn should be used as food rather than fuel there is no reason he can't buy all the corn he wants to to do whatever he wants with but I have a real problem with him telling me or any other farmer what we should or shouldn't be doing with the crops that we pay alot of money to produce.



P. S. The 9 bushels of corn it takes to fill that tank comes out to 500 pounds or about 1. 3lbs per day and I don't think the average person could survive on that much food.

 

[bmoeller]

I think that is probably a distorted view. He probably has some hidden agenda. Numbers can be played with to make them say whatever you want. I don't think corn is the food of choice for starving people.

Even if the number of bushels required are correct, there are still usable byproducts, like corn gluten for animal feed. Other uses, I'm sure, as well. It is just one step in the process.



Same goes for crude oil. Takes energy to get the oil, deliver, refine into whatever products, delivered again maybe several times before the final product reaches it final destination.



So anyway you look at it, it still takes plenty of energy to get what we need.

 

[tgordon]

Personally I am for anything that prevents $ from going to the middle east. It is hard to hate someone when they have quite sending you money and you are more worried about your next meal than who you want to hate today.



I almost fall over laughing at all the reports about how much energy it takes to produce the bio fuels and how inefficiant it is, but no one evers wants to put numbers to down on paper for the petro based, I guess that would be bashing the big boys



I prefer midwest gold to texas gold

 

[Matt400]

Either that or BS - we could process enough of THAT right from Washington DC to power us WELL into the future... :-laf

As a bonus you will also have discovered perpetual motion!!! :-laf

 

[sdstriper]

Ethanol by-product...diesel!

Something else that should be said here is that the by-products that are produced when ethanol is made from corn is not a waste product. For cattle the by-products actually make better feed than the corn would have before it was processed. I don't think ethanol is the answer to our energy problem but it's one of the best options we have available right now and I don't think we can afford to wait until some of the other idea's are ready for the market.



Corn is a publicly traded commodity and if this guy thinks corn should be used as food rather than fuel there is no reason he can't buy all the corn he wants to to do whatever he wants with but I have a real problem with him telling me or any other farmer what we should or shouldn't be doing with the crops that we pay alot of money to produce.



P. S. The 9 bushels of corn it takes to fill that tank comes out to 500 pounds or about 1. 3lbs per day and I don't think the average person could survive on that much food.

I haven't been following this subject enough to give numbers etc. But I did want to add that in the State of South Dakota we have ethanol producers that are going to be turning by-products of the ethanol process into Bio-diesel. The way I read it, it sounds as if it is going to be a significant amount of their revenues. They actually have to shut down for long periods of time, full capacity I guess. The bio is going to add more consistency to production from what I understand.



Does anyone know how many gallons of water the average plant uses to produce ethanol on a daily basis? It is a large amount of water per day they use, wish I had kept that article, makes for good conversation to say the least.

 

[AMink]

I heard on the news this morning there is a group that is pushing the algae to fuel method mentioned above. Burning pond scum. It'd be easier to fish! That's a good idea.

 

[MyDiesel]

I burn corn now with not much processing. Just take it off the cob and feed it to my corn/pellet stove. Some goes to my original corn dogs, two chocolate cockers beg for it when I fill my stove hopper. :-laf