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Strategies & Market Trends : ahhaha's ahs
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From: ahhaha11/12/2013 3:20:34 PM
of 24758
 
Told ya. We knew all about this problem in the '70s. Most environmental initiatives have similar problems. Fact is, one ought not be an environmentalist. Be a conservationist.

Attention Fracktivists: Corn Ethanol Is The Real Environmental Culprit (AP)

Ethanol fuel plant in West Burlington, Iowa.

Ethanol is proving terrible for the environment. Spurred by the absurd biofuel volumes mandated by the Federal Renewable Fuels Standard, farmers in recent years have plowed over 5 millions of acres of conserved land and virgin prairie. This has released massive amounts of carbon dioxide that had been locked in the soil. So much for ethanol’s promise of being a carbon-neutral replacement for oil.

Roughly 40% of America’s corn crop goes to support ethanol production. From the late 2000s through 2012 corn prices — stimulated by the federal ethanol mandates – soared, surpassing $7.50 a bushel last year before falling off. High prices naturally brought overfarming of corn, destroying animal habitats and causing massive water pollution from fertilizer runoff.

The evidence of water pollution caused by ethanol is obvious: nitrogren fertilizer applied in the corn fields has ruined wells under farmland and has seeped into rivers that millions of people rely on for drinking water. Eventually the chemicals drift down the Mississippi, resulting in a 5,800 square-mile dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. And farmers are having to pump more and more chemicals onto their fields. Because by insisting on growing cash-crop corn year after year rather than rotating their crops, farmers are knowingly depleting the quality of their soil, which then requires ever more additives to maintain yields...
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