All the hoopla about corn-planter dust resulting in bee kills and possible
longer-term contamination and accumulation in soils and water sources that
might be used by pollinators is enhanced by the growth in corn production.

 

So, grow less corn, have less problem with planter dust, as corn is a
uniquely massive seed, with a uniquely large surface area from which seed
coatings can rub off in the rough-and-tumble of a seed hopper and seed
drill.

 

As made clear in prior posts using authoritative data from the USDA, the
massive growth in production of corn in the USA has nothing to do with
feeding people or livestock. The growth in corn is for highly-subsidized
fuel use.

 

As the technology improves in "cellulosic ethanol production", non-food
crops, easier to grow than corn, and needing fewer pesticides in far lower
quantities than corn, can be used to make ethanol.  The reaction of the corn
production juggernaut is to proclaim that "crop residues" from corn can be
processed in this manner, which would keep corn in the game as a biofuel.  

 

Anyone who has farmed (and I know that there are very few who read Bee-L who
actually have farmed more than a kitchen garden) knows the importance of
retaining crop residue on their fields to protect against erosion and
preserve nutrients and soil quality.  In short, one turns the residues
under. In high-tech dairy and cattle operations, one chops the stalks and
leaves and composts them with manure before returning them to the soil.  In
lower-tech ops, one adds them to silage, and runs them through the cows, who
do all the chopping and mixing and will return them to the soil mixed with
manure, which seems far more elegant.

 

It turns out that using corn crop residues is a net loser for the
environment.  Even as compared to gasoline made from our dwindling strategic
reserve of dead dinosaurs, it is a greenhouse gas source that makes the
resulting ethanol more polluting overall than gasoline.

 

I have not heard anyone claim that the same type of analysis would
discourage the use of Switchgrass and other biofuels that could be used in a
commercially viable "cellulosic ethanol production" process, but the report
at hand does not compare them to the corn residues.

 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140420131814.htm

http://tinyurl.com/l3zc6y5

 

 


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