You've
seen it on TV. You've read it in the newspaper. The headlines read
“Too much ethanol could lead to food riots”
and “Ethanol pumping up food prices”1.
News pundits and
doomsday theorists would have us believe that if we keep using
ethanol for fuel, the whole world will starve 2.
Several sites 3
tout all the
disadvantages of ethanol; higher prices than gasoline, loss of
farmland, rain forests sacrificed. If you
look at all of these resources closely, you will notice that most specify
CORN-BASED
ETHANOL
and almost none of them tell you that not only is corn not the only
source available, it's not even the best.
Ethanol
can be produced from any source of simple sugars4,
and even things that can be broken down into sugars such as certain
starches and cellulose from plain old lawn clippings. Just today, I watched a History Channel program on biofuels, which in part talked about using termites in the process. While ethanol
from cellulose is still experimental and quite expensive, progress is
being made which shows promise of making the food-or-fuel debate
moot.
Obviously,
since
the ethanol is produced from sugar, the
higher the sugar content of a plant the more ethanol can be produced from it.
Sugar cane and sugar beets are at the top of the list, but both take
up a lot of farm land also suitable for food crops. So, is there any
crop that can be grown without tyeing up valuable food acreage? Yes!
Carrots5.
Carrots
have a higher natural sugar content than all other vegetables with
the exception of beets6.
Carrots have 10% more sugar
than corn per gram7.
AND...an acre of carrots produces over 3 times the product in weight than an acre of corn8.
Those facts in themselves make the lowly carrot a much better
candidate to scoot your Chevy or Ford down the road. An excerpt from
the ETHANOL PRODUCER'S DATA BASE shows:
Citations
Feedstock
listed in
Alphabetical order |
Gallons
per Ton
|
Gallons
per Acre
|
Best yield
per Ton
|
Best Yield
per Acre
|
BEST YIELD
All around
Theoretical
|
Carrots
|
9.8
|
121.0
|
29
|
13
|
18
|
84.0
|
214.0
|
2
|
7
|
1
|
From this table it
would seem that carrots run a poor showing when compared to corn.
But
there's more to the story than what is seen here.
To
now, I have compared acre to acre and pound to pound; also know as an
“acre harvest”. To get the true picture, one also has to consider
the “harvest year”. That is; how many times can that same acre be
harvested in any given year. This, times the acre harvest gives a
true annual yield. Carrots come out on top every time.
In
about half of the country, you can get 2 harvests of carrots per year
if grown traditionally; ie. in the ground outside9.
That in itself would give 242 gal/acre according to the above chart.
That is a 12% increase over corn.
There
is, however, another way to grow carrots (as well as radishes,
potatoes and many other root crops). It's called hydroponics10.
This can be done vertically (stacked troughs) as easily as
horizontally, giving a much larger yield. Stacked 3 high, 1 acre of
ground can give about 2 acres of crop (space must be provided for
equipment and your feet).
Additionally, because the growing
area is artificial as opposed to valuable farm land, it can be done
anywhere. Even in the rockiest, most worthless land you can find. As
long as there is water available, a hydroponic system
can be run. So much for eating up farmland and starving the masses.
The
other big objection given about ethanol production is the energy
required for the distillation process. That energy is used in the
form of heat to separate
the ethanol from the fermented
corn, carrots or whatever you're using as raw material, and can be
created from almost anything that will burn. Yes; petroleum and coal
can be used. They pollute, are non-renewable and expensive. So is
there another, better way?
Methane!
Methane is a natural byproduct of organic decomposition11.
It is also the primary component of natural gas12.
In other words; it will be produced. We can let it go into the
atmosphere as a greenhouse gas, or we can burn it, extract the
energy, and pollute a lot less.
The
NEW SCIENTIST on-line
publication says:“Methane
generated by rotting rubbish in landfill dumps could make a far
greater contribution to the world's energy supply”13 and
the WIH RESOURCE GROUP reports: “Food
that is mixed in with regular trash is estimated to make up about 40%
of the trash in landfills. It also is the biggest offender in
creating landfill methane which is a powerful greenhouse gas – 72
times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Reducing landfill methane is
just one of the benefits of keeping this type of waste out of
landfills.” 14
Using
garbage to turn into ethanol a crop that grows anywhere and gives 4
to 5 times the yield of fuel over corn makes economic, environmental
and political sense. The reason you don't hear a lot about using
carrots is precisely because it can be done cheaper and easier than
corn and carrots can be produced without driving up prices and
garnering a lot of political controversy. As long as corn prices
remain artificially inflated, congressmen get regular contributions
to their coffers. That will keep corn in the forefront and other crops, including carrots out of the spotlight.
At least that's my
opinion. What's yours?
Have a conspiracy you'd like me to research? Got a question about crypto? Post a comment HERE and I'll do my best to post the answer.
Have a conspiracy you'd like me to research? Got a question about crypto? Post a comment HERE and I'll do my best to post the answer.
Citations
3
http://media.www.dennews.com/media/storage/paper309/news/2006/10/19/News/The-Disadvantages.Of.Ethanol-
2375556.shtml
For more information on ethanol
production in the USA, please visit:
If
you're interested in
home
fuel-ethanol production, see:
http://running_on_alcohol.tripod.com/
and
Valuable information regarding
home production of methane can be found at:
or
