The ethanol backlash is accelerating; even the cows aren't happy
How many E85 pumps do you have nearby? Odds are, not very many. Meanwhile, production of ethanol continues to climb and more corn is being consumed for fuel production. That's driving up prices of grain for livestock feed. All in all almost no one is happy. In spite the fact that people are starting to realize that corn ethanol is clearly not a panacea, there may actually be an upside to this. Perhaps the increased price of feed grain will encourage more livestock producers to get them off the feed lots and go back to grazing cattle on grass like they were meant to. That would probably help reduce the incidents of toxic E Coli and methane emissions. Cattle aren't supposed to eat grains, anyway, and can't really digest them properly.
[Source: Wall Street Journal]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Tim 11:37AM (11/28/2007)
I sure hope the farmers didn't spend all my tax money in one place! Oh, I forgot that their strong lobby’s "support" for certain “honorable legislators” will make sure that there is more where that came from. I hope I get a Christmas (sorry, I should have said “holidays” card) from the farmers to thank me for my generous FORCED financial gift.
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dwf 12:20PM (11/28/2007)
I think the continued use of corn for ethanol is a deliberate attempt to kill E85 production. Corn is about the WORST crop to use for ethanol production in terms of gallons per acre, yet it is the crop that is being pushed, probably because it has the biggest infrastructure already in place. There are much better crops we could be using, but they are not as common and do not have the existing infrastructure like corn farmers have. Continuing to use a food crop like corn will kill ethanol as an alternative fuel. Other crops, especially algae, would produce more ethanol and not have the bad side-effect of causing food shortages (or at least not give nay-sayers the sound-bite that it causing good shortages, whether it is true or not).
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tchamp 12:40PM (11/28/2007)
Ok, I gotta give the Iowa perspective here.
First off, most cattle are raised in confinement facilities (That would be big, metal buildings), or the pasture area available is not enough to feed all the cows, so they supplement with alfalfa, hay, and feed grains like corn.
Some farmers who raise both corn and cattle (rare now days) have good enough fences around their corn fields, and let the cows graze on the waste material from harvesting corn. That's everything from the corn stalk besides the corn kernels. The farmers who've torn out the old fences will sometime bail the stalks (like hay bails) and feed those to livestock also.
Really, there's not enough open pasture to let the cattle roam around eating grass, and get enough to eat. The "go back to grazing cattle on grass like they were meant to." comment isn't really based in reality. I suppose you could dedicate more crop land to alfalfa, and feed that to the cattle. That would be a much more intelligent suggestion.
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dhofmann 12:41PM (11/28/2007)
As far as food production, raising cattle isn't the most efficient use of our land anyway.
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Kardax 1:10PM (11/28/2007)
The high price of corn (and the ripple effect to all other crops as more land is devoted to corn production) is going to have a multiplied effect in the price of meat; it takes a lot of crops to grow an animal, especially when you think about the relatively small amount of meals a cow produces versus all the feed it eats.
As I've said before, a farmland crunch is inevitable as the world population grows. Corn ethanol is accelerating things. We're approaching an era where meat of any kind is considered a luxury food.
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detroit9000 2:43PM (11/28/2007)
I'm happy. There are a lot of pumps where I live. And I'm not a farmer!
I like farmers more than I like terrorists. Ethanol is a good stop-gap to divert money away from unstable countries until we switch to electric cars.
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Domenick 5:44PM (11/28/2007)
Nice. So the poor will have to cut back on meat so the rich can drive SUVs.
And I think to myself, "What a wonderful world".
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bioburner 7:07PM (11/28/2007)
Don't know how much truth there is in this but my teenager tells me it takes 14 pounds of grain products to produce 1 pound of meat. I do know that 1 pound of soybeans contain 700 grams of protein and 1 pound of hamburger has about 100 grams of protein. Seems to me the best thing to do is cut out the cows and eat the protein rich grains directly, there would be plenty of food and fuel for everyone.
OK i admit it I'm a vegetarian
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Murc 7:34PM (11/28/2007)
from the article:"How many E85 pumps do you have nearby? Odds are, not very many."
Just cause this site is based out of california doesn't mean you should ignore the rest of the US.
I live is South Dakota....there is E-85 pumps all over the place.
E-85 has a growing user base...which is a good thing. The future for cars, is to go all electric...we all know that. But a cheap & good electric car for the masses is still several years away. so in the meantime, get used to E-85 & hybrids.
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GenWaylaid 7:30PM (11/28/2007)
There are plenty of worse places to get ethanol than corn! For instance...the homeless?
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Sam Abuelsamid 7:50PM (11/28/2007)
Actually Murc, ABG has no base. The team is scattered in various locations and currently we don't have anyone in California. In the Ann Arbor, MI area where I live there are two E85 pumps available.
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Chris M 8:30PM (11/28/2007)
I find it amusing when some city slicker tries to tell farmers how to run their business. Cows have no problem digesting grains, except possibly wheat - the gluten in wheat can trap gas and cause bloating if large quantities are consumed.
Farmers and ranchers will graze cattle on pastureland whenever it is practical to do so, as it can save a lot of work. However, pastures are not always available, particularly when covered in snow. Dairy cows must be milked 2 or 3 times a day, and rounding up cows from large pastures 2 to 3 times every day might be too much of a hassle.
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GreyFlcn 9:23PM (11/28/2007)
I live is South Dakota....there is E-85 pumps all over the place.
Actually it's because the population aren't where the pumps are. Regardless which edge of the country you want to pick.
http://greyfalcon.net/e85stations.png
Also, frankly according to the GAO, only 1% of all ethanol sold in 2006 was E85.
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Owain Ozymandias Buck 8:23AM (11/29/2007)
Actually, bioburner, ground beef is about 25% protein and soybeans are less than 20%. Tofu, which is processed soy, only has about 40g of protein per pound. You should verify your sources.
Your question about the efficiency of meat production is a good one though.
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Guenther 8:37AM (11/29/2007)
Um- #8- bioburner- tell your teenager that there are only less than 500g in a pound. Even though beans are 'the magical fruit', they cannot contain more of something than they weigh. further, they're are about 10% water, 5% fiber, the rest is carbs, protein and fat.
I have an E-85 station right by my house- not that I care much, since my vehicle doesn't use it. Corn is bad for ethanol, but cellulosic ethanol plants are on the way soon.
Cows around here are fed sileage, which is the whole corn plant ground up.
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dirtkahuna 9:15AM (11/29/2007)
E85 costs 10% less than gas, but gets 25% worse mileage. The cost/benefit is just not there.
Someday I'm going to have a small wind turbine on my property generating electricity for a plug-in hybrid.
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Jayhawk94 1:19AM (12/28/2007)
Cattle are indeed built to live on grasses, but taste far better when "fed out" on grain/corn for at least a few weeks prior to slaughter. The high-quality beef you get at a steak house was probably fed out for a couple months or more. Speaking from my experience as a former 4-H member and as a current consumer of my parents' home grown cattle.
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NMT 11:24AM (11/29/2007)
It's not the place of anyone to tell anyone else what they should eat, what they should farm or how they should farm. The only wrong is government subsidies of corn and ethanol. Eliminate subsidies and let people eat and farm what the market supports.
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Bob Moffitt (Bob from ALAMN) 11:38AM (11/29/2007)
We have more than 330 E85 pumps in our state. See them all -- and in the five other Upper Midwest states -- at www.cleanairchoice.org
BTW, the reported link between e coli and grain-fed beef (almost all US beef is grain fed) is old news.
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bioburner 5:01PM (11/29/2007)
Yes as many have pointed out It's 400 grams of protein in 14 pounds of soy beans. Tofu is made from soybeans but they are not the same thing. Soybeans have way more protein than tofu pound for pound. Also as far as efficiency goes, 1 pound of protein in food does not produce 1 pound of protein in meat.
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