[Greenbuilding] [BULK] Re: bio fuels and ethanol

[YankeePerm at aol.com]

Sorry to take so long getting back.   I've been tied up reviewing student 
designs (and growing my own food).


In a message dated 4/27/07 10:05:54 AM, LLile at projsolco.com writes:   [SNIP]


> Admittedly, the impact of soybeans and corn on the land are immediate and 
> easy for someone in the Midwest to go look at.  However farmers can grow these 
> crops in many different ways.  There is a farmer here in Mid Missouri who 
> grows a rotation like this:  Clover, which is grown through a year and then 
> plowed in, just in time to plant soybeans in late spring.  In early summer, he 
> sows clover between the soybean rows, which doesn't really take off until the 
> soybeans are harvested.  The clover is grown until the next summer, when it 
> and the grasses that sprout along with it are taken for hay.  The crop is left 
> to grow until the next spring, when it is plowed under and the soybeans go 
> in again.  The guy is farming 1000 acres organically with this rotation, his 
> soil organic matter measurements increase every year, and except for one month 
> out of 24 his soil is covered with plant material. He plows in a crop every 
> other year, but makes a cash crop off his land every single year.  He isn't 
> losing soil, and he isn't pouring fertilizer and herbicides on his soil. Both 
> soybeans and clover are Legumes, and return nitrogen to the soil, which is 
> why he buys no fertilizer.  The problem with soybeans is in common farming 
> practices, not anything inherent in the bean plant itself.  Conventional farming 
> is not sustainable, and it will remain unsustainable whether we buy soybeans 
> for oil or farmers sell them to Archer-Daniels to make other stuff out of.  
> The fight to move farming in a sustainable direction is a whole 'nuther 
> discussion, which I will leave for another mailing list.  
> 
> That being said, I do admit these are very valid and serious concerns you 
> have expressed, Dan, and I want you to realize that they are being heard.  The 
> food-vs-fuel argument has consistently been raised when discussing biofuels.  
> I believe that most of the biproducts of ethanol and biodiesel production 
> are corn and soy protien, which end up in ADM's labs being turned into 
> cosmetics and paints, or back in the food chain feeding cows, where most of the corn 
> and soybeans were headed in the first place.  Now you can debate whether cows 
> are a good idea too, and that's also a good discussion for another list (I 
> am a vegetarian, so you can guess where my vote is) but you can see how the 
> whole subject gets a lot more complicated than a simple A vs B debate. 
> 
> Lawrence Lile
> <<
> 
OK, it appears easy for folks to forget the sum total of messages on a 
thread.   I said right along that I could see a role for biodiesel and ethanol, 
especially as on farm fuels. It is a great way to use bumper crops, for which 
there is not generally a ready market, and could reduce the need for price 
supports. 

I read about the research showing that living clover mulch does not impair 
soybean yields around 1967. So it is refreshing that one farmer has heeded the 
research, or, more likely, just figured it out for him/herself. Indeed, the 
farmer could establish a 'permanent' clover cover and just drill soybeans through 
it with a minor amount of cultivation to slightly favor the 'beans'.   The 
system that your model farmer is using also works well with corn (maize).   
While both clover and soy are nitrogen fixing legumes*, nitrogen is being removed 
from the field with hay crops and as soybeans.   As are phosphorous (especial
ly), potassium, and trace minerals, which aren't being replaced by the system 
as described.   There is just no such thing as 'sustainable agriculture.'   

[*Not all legumes fix nitrogen, and not all nitrogen fixing plants are 
legumes.   Algae undoubtedly fix far more nitrogen on a global basis.   So it is not 
automatic that, being legumes, clover and soy fix N.   It just happens to be 
the case.   How much N is another matter. The only crop legume that fixes more 
N than is removed when harvested is cowpea.]

I've nothing against bovines (and wish I could afford a few Asian water 
buffalo for my place).   But they are best raised on browse and grazing, not on 
grains, whether processed by a distiller or not.  (And meat from 'grass fat' 
cattle does not contribute to hardening of the arteries.) Since there is so much 
being produced, I'll like to figure out how I could buy some of this abundant 
distiller's mash for my chickens, which eat the vast majority of their diets 
from what they get outdoors but sill need a bit of supplement to keep laying.   
However, USDA is going crazy trying to find uses for huge surpluses of 
distillers wastes, even adding them to soil as fertilizer, mulch, and weed 
germination inhibitors.   This is like fertilizing corn with steaks.   When we start 
using food for fertilizer, we should just strike the word 'sustainable' from the 
English language dictionaries.   We don't deserve even to have the word.

Dan




---------------------------------------------------------
Barking Frogs Permaculture Center
www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org

Our 12th Annual Permaculture Design Course Online begins Oct. 14, 2007. The 
protocol for our Annual Permaculture Design Course Online is at 
http://www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org/Protocol7_05_06.pdf
Our next live program is Aug. 17-26th on Nantucket, Massachusetts. Contact 
Dylan at dryfly2000 at yahoo.com for details.

A list by topic of all Yankee Permaculture titles also may be found at

http://www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org/YPCpublicationsbycategory.pdf

 





**************************************
 See what's free at http://www.aol.com.