Page 6 RAIN October 1980 Generic Anhydrous Ethanol Plant from Fuel from Farms Cooker/Fermenter (3 Places) eont. Rodale fears that once this technology is in wide·spread use, there will be a massive harvesting of crop residues which should be returned to the soil to maintain long term fertility. "The crop wastes that would ... be put in the stills ... are a main bulwark against erosion," Rodale writes. "They add humus to the soil so hard rains _can soak in instead of washing lhe soil away. And these so-called wastes recycle minerals and nitrogen back to the soil-fertilizer elements which otherwise would have to be replaced at a high cost in fossil fuels." The importance of these crop residues in the prevention of erosion was well documented in a major USDA study by agronomists who concluded that "When returned to the soil, crop residues retain plant nutrients and help maintain soil porosity and tilth for easy tillage and good plant growth.... Proper use of crop residues can be the best means to control wind and water erosion and maintain the quality of water running off agricultural land." . . In their final report, released in March of 1979, the USDA scientists stressed that only a small percentage of the crop residues could be safely removed from the land for conversion into.ethanol. In the corn belt states, the scientists calculated some 36% of the residues could be harvested without damaging long-term soil fertility compared to only 21 % in the Great Plains states. In Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia, some 40% of the crop residues might be used for alcohol production but only a miniscule 10% of the residues could be safely utilized in Alabama and Mississippi cotton fields. In an ideal world, the nation's far~ers would surely heed the agronomists' warnings and remove only the recommended percentages of their crop residues from the soil. But whe,n financially strapped farmers are suddenly offered cash payments for all their crop residues from a nearby distillery, they might well be tempted to trade off long-term soil fertility for more immediate profits. A soil conservation official would criticize the farmer for such a move-but the farmer might well reply, "It was either sell the entire field of crop residues to the distillery this year or go bankrupt next winter when I can't pay off my bank loans." In today's world, economic-not environmental~considerations are primary in determining land use on most U.S. farms. Rodale has also not hesitated to bring up the "Food versus Fuel" issue. A variety of grim future scenarios have been painted'in which prime farmlands are converted over to energy crop farming for gasguzzling automobiles while millions of the world's poor starve. The ·risk of such a warped development of the alcohol fuels industry is greatest in Brazil, which is already utilizing large areas of fertile farmlands for sugar cane-based ethanol production. Since less than 10% ·of Brazil's populace can afford to own automobiles, it seems appare'nt that vast amounts of Brazilian financial capital and resources are being funneled into a program for the benefit of an affluent minority. Although the massive Brazilian alcohol development program (designed to accomplish a near complete transition away from petroleum-based fuels by the end of the century) will create some jobs in rural areas, it will also reinforce agricultural development policies which have long favored export cash cropping over diversified agriculture targeted to meet the basic food needs of the Brazilian people. The by-products of the sugar cane distillation p~ocess have little nutritional value for either livestock or people. Toward an Alternative Fuel Network The creation of a broad-based ethanol industry in the United States would not necessarily result in any reduction of world food supplies. The dominant ethanol energy crop in the United States for at least the next decade will probably be corn, much of which.is now fed to livestock. The ethanol distillation process does not destroy the liyest~ck feed value of the remaining corn but actually enhances
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