Odds 'n' Ends
Today
seems to be one of those days where the news outlets are focused on
all-Karl-Rove-all-the-time, and some little things have flown past the
radar. Here are a few things that caught my eye.
Turning Over The Soil
The Des Moines Register ran an interesting special report Sunday on the coming property shifts
bound to happen in Iowa as a large generation of small farmers begins
to pass from the scene. It's a rather amazing fact that about
half of the state's farmland is owned by those 65 and older with a
quarter being held by those 74 and over.
The
issues of “local control” will haunt us if land begins to shift from
small farmers to corporate farmers and out-of-state interests.
How do we magically expect farm operations to be “good neighbors” when
the owners live in Chicago or Minneapolis?
KA-BOOM!!:
For a little fun, the Register is hosting a video
(Streamed QuickTime) of this morning's implosion of Knapp and Storm
halls on the Iowa State Campus. It's amazing how big a crowd can
be on a Tuesday morning.
Lose Weight: Drink More Milk? (Or Not?)
A
physician's advocacy group filed a lawsuit against three main dairy
advocacy groups to stop them from running an ad campaign promoting the
incredible fat-burning properties of milk consumption.
Not surprising:
PCRM
said the dairy industry’s weight-loss campaign is based solely on two
small-scale studies using questionable methodology, led by Michael
Zemel, Ph.D., an industry-funded researcher at the University of Tennessee.
Since 1998, Zemel has accepted nearly $1.7 million in research grants
from the National Dairy Council (NDC), and $275,000 from General Mills.
Gee –
who could doubt those studies? Look – there are valid reasons to
promote milk and dairy consumption, but paying someone to conduct
faulty studies to support a pre-supported conclusion is not one of
them. (Not surprising – the writers at the Coalition to Support Iowa's [Corporate] Farmers took offense at someone questioning the honesty of an ad campaign.)
Ethanol – A “Corn Dog”
A group of Cornell researchers pointed out that ethanol is not a magic solution to America's energy problem:
[E]thanol boosters are ignoring some unpleasant facts:
Ethanol
won't significantly reduce our oil imports; adding more ethanol to our
gas tanks adds further complexity to our motor-fuel supply chain, which
will lead to further price hikes at the pump; and, most important (and
most astonishing), it may take more energy to produce a gallon of
ethanol than it actually contains.
The
important thing to keep in mind: they're right. It takes
energy to produce the crops and process the outputs into ethanol (or
other biofuels). It sure won't help America's energy problem if
we have to burn more oil in tractors, pesticides, fertilizers and
processing plants.
Ethanol
has to be a part of a larger energy supply chain – taking into account
solar, wind and other renewable sources. (How about powering
ethanol production with wind farms?)
Blog For Iowa 
Molly posted this from the DMReg last Sunday:
According to Ms. Norton,
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Ethanol production (and biodiesel) defiintely have advantages – don't get me wrong. However, in my own line of thought (as well as the Cornell and Berkeley studies), the complete supply chain has to be considered.
Seattle New Pi
—
But researchers at Cornell University and the University of California-Berkeley say it takes 29 percent more fossil energy to turn corn into ethanol than the amount of fuel the process produces. For switch grass, a warm weather perennial grass found in the Great Plains and eastern North America United States, it takes 45 percent more energy and for wood, 57 percent.
—
Probably more to the point: to really reap the benefits of ethanol production, we can't just assume that producing bio-fuels from corn and soybeans in the same old way will be truly beneficial. We'll still be burning fossil fuels if tractors powered by petroleum products, spraying petroleum products, sending outputs to factories powered by petroleum products, etc. is not addressed.
Just passing “E85” regulations without considering how we produce the crops in the first place isn't going to be the Middle East replacement that the promoters are pushing these days.
On the plus side, putting cleaner burning biofuels into place in urban areas will help with air quality issues – which is the real immediate win. I am very much in favor of ethanol production for that reason – with the caveat that “we're not done, yet”.
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Chad,
If you look ahead in 10-15 years at ethanol's potential, you'll see tractors powered by BioDiesel. That is when it really starts to pay off. Whatever study you choose to focus on today has got to have better results than when ethanol production first started. I think it will continue in that direction. Minnesota is speeding up that process by requiring 30 percent ethanol blend and Iowa should soon follow.
And your point about ethanol being potentially powered by wind energy is a reality in some Western Iowa Ethanol Plants. Another renewable resource that seems to get lost in these debates and studies is the sun. How much energy is saved by using the sun to produce the corn that ethanol is made from today?
For everyone's benefit let's hope that ethanol is the right solution b/c for Iowa that's what we're invested in for a generation to come.
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Chad (!):
I agree with your point about the future payoff – and thinking about implementing BioDiesel in tractors, etc. is exactly the directon to move in.
The wind energy being used to power the production plants is also exactly the right direction.
Don't get me wrong: there is much more good than bad coming out of this – just that the various studies have pointed out that our policies need to be more comprehensive than just mandating the use of ethanol. (Esp. important considering the big push for a federal energy bill.)
Truthfully, I'm also worried about the big agribusiness players using CAFTA and corporate-owned Brazilian as the loophole to sink the investments made by famers co-ops and local producers that have invested a lot of capital in the little industry that is starting to grow.
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