Maybe “Yellow” is Not the New “Green”

The Chicago Tribune reported Monday that this year’s corn crop is anticipated by the US Department of Agriculture to reach an all-time high, when all is said and done, at 13.3 billion bushels. Of course, not all of that corn is for human (or even animal) consumption–the vast amount of corn planted this year (about 20% more than last year) can be attributed to the newfound demand for the fuel additive, ethanol. Good news for Midwestern farmers…but what does it mean for the rest of us?

The New York Times put out a cautionary editorial about ethanol production yesterday, calling its environmental benefits “modest” and pointing out that the resulting jump in food prices, which we blogged about back in May, is certain to create serious problems for people in poor countries.

Our friends at Food & Water Watch, together with the Network for New Energy Choices and the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School, recently released a report called “The Rush to Ethanol: Not All Biofuels are Created Equal,” which points out a number of troubling facts about the alternative fuel:

Dedicating the entire U.S. corn crop to ethanol would displace only a small share of gasoline demand.

…when fossil fuels are used to power ethanol refineries, it can lead to higher greenhouse gas emissions than the fossil fuel ethanol is intended to replace.

Growth in the ethanol industry could further concentrate agribusiness, draining economic health from rural communities.

Another disturbing bit is the chapter they’ve dedicated to the synergies between ethanol producers and factory farms. Here’s the gist: corn byproducts from ethanol production can be fed to factory farm animals. The manure from said animals, in turn, can be sold as fertilizer to the corn producers. Of course, we know that factory farms are…problematic, to say the least, so this tie-in does not exactly win us over.

Our friends are not the only ones with a bone to pick over ethanol–a new case study from Environmental Defense, which popped up yesterday on earthtimes.org, reports on environmental pitfalls with its production, including water depletion, and the Environmental News Network posted an article written by Laura Carlson of Americas Policy Program, which argues that “agrofuels” are good for business, but bad for farmers (and you know we love farmers).

Sounds like the only “greening” this biofuel is doing is happening in the pockets of big agribusiness.