Spot on, as usual. The missing piece of the "effects" puzzle not mentioned here is wildlife, which is tied to habitat, which is tied to water quality. The insatiable drive to put every square inch of this state in beans and corn (to the exclusion of grassland, bugs, potable water, and birds, not to mention pleasing landscapes) makes us all crazy, as well. So, we fight each other in the annual Farm Bureau sponsored Legislative crusade against public land acquisition in Iowa (strangely, no mention is ever made of farmland lost to the really big bucks in development). When we migrated (from Michigan, don't call ICE) here nearly 50 years ago Iowa was a pleasant, diverse ag landscape with clean water and abundant fish and wildlife. Now, not so much.
Thank you, I am both astonished and deeply honored. I never saw that coming, and it is only made better by it being a complete surprise. I stand on the shoulders of so many Iowans that care about our wildlife and other natural resources... and I am very grateful.
Excellent point about development. I've heard only dead silence from the IFB regarding cropland and pastures being annexed by municipalities and/or turning into classic rural sprawl. The rural sprawl is especially maddening if developers claim (and I've sat in meeting rooms and heard this claim) that a hundred-acre pasture that is going to have thirty scattered expensive homes and their infrastructure will be just as good for wildlife and water quality as the undeveloped pasture.
By coincidence, I also migrated here from Michigan almost fifty years ago. I'd be interested in a detailed comparison of what the Iowa landscape was like then and now. Of course it was more diverse, less developed, and didn't have CAFOs. But I also remember hearing from conservationist friends in 1980 that a lot of water was farm-polluted and stinky, but that no one officially was looking at that or wanted to look. I also remember that rural soil erosion was horrendous, and a lot more cropland was tilled completely black every year. I also seem to remember that the awful practice of straightening streams was more common and less regulated, though I'm not certain. I also remember seeing photos of Iowa gullies from the 1930s that were jaw-dropping, so Iowa wasn't just a paradise back then.
Yes, it was far from perfect "back in the day". But in my nostalgic rear view rambles, "back then" was better, most assuredly from a habitat and ag intensity standpoint. That much is documented. Not certain on water quality.
I'm an Iowa farm boy born in 1958. I always remember the waters being brown from erosion silt but the concentration of ag chemicals was very low. The nitrate levels were considerably less, tiling fields added to the problem, You didn't see the toxic algae blooms like today. If you could stand the grit in your shorts and hair, swimming was okay, no worries about chemical levels. And i guess we won't have to worry anymore, as they are just raising the permissible levels.
"I would make the case that corn ethanol has vulgarized Iowa and corn belt agriculture, turned agribusiness people into avaricious liars and politicians into despicable industry mouthpieces."
Might this explain why this industry has been so supportive of this regime and political party comprised of "avaricious liars and despicable ... mouthpieces"? That authoritarians in business would gravitate to and select for authoritarians in government? Mutually dependent on lies, propaganda, secrecy, and corruption? Operating without oversight, monitoring, and enforcement? Making their own laws and regulations? Trumping the public before Trump?
"Every step in the corn ethanol process" (industrial mono-crop production in general) ... involves the exchange of money with literally no responsibility or accountability for the negative environmental and societal consequences."
In the capital system, all other values are subjugated to the value of the dollar. The value of the "tool" for production always comes first. The "costs"? Well, how do you measure the degraded quality of living for all who live here and are forced to "take it"? And at the same time suffering the indignity of coercion to burn the alcohol "feeding the world" is making? Capital is always first at the feed trough. Values? Shitty seconds.
The entire corn-based ethanol story might be the best example I've seen in my career of that age-old saying we in the environmental community have used for years:
Excellent analysis, Chris. I have been arguing this for years, but without such detailed analyses that you provided. I enjoyed seeing your numbers. They are convincing.
Given the political power and recalcitrance of the ethanol/corn industry, the ultimate solution is likely to come from replacing ICE vehicles with EVs powered by solar energy--killing the demand for ethanol. In Norway, 98% of new car sales are EVs and plug-in hybrids (with 89% being fully electric). The momentum for this transition in the US has been slowed by the current federal administration, but I believe it is inevitable.
We have seen the numbers: that an acre of solar panels will produce 50 to 100 times more energy than an acre of corn for ethanol (and save our water from a lot of pollution). The big challenge for Iowa in the future will be what to do with all those acres now devoted to producing corn for ethanol. Corn prices are in the basement today. What will happen to corn prices when ethanol disappears, if we don't find an alternative use for that land?
At the local gas pump, 10 gallons of E10 (1 gallon of ethanol plus 9 gallons of gasoline) costs less than 9 gallons of gasoline. Ya just have to give it away to get rid of it. This falls in the same category as non-point source pollution, over apply the manure on the field so we can all pretend we don't know where it came from.
“Regulations” like CAFE standards are an attempt to control profiteering and corrupt greed with other values. Without those, free markets eventually self destruct, ruining people and resources in the process. The ethanol crowd is a case in point. But let’s see what the tariffs do to ag. Could be a disaster as the powerful ramp up their siphoning of wealth from the land and people. Thanks, Chris, for your courage to write about these absurdities.
Dwayne Andreas of ADM and good buddy Senator Bob Dole got this giant ball rolling downhill. The first time I heard the phrase "political economy", I had a good idea what it meant. Duane Johnson
Those biofools! Thanks for this Chris. Ethanol has always been the biggest get-rich-quick scam ever. Dems and Reps all praised it all these years that were being developed in Iowa. I once gave a talk at agribusiness U (ISU) outlining why biofuels, especially corn ethanol, are thermodynamically foolish. "Obey thermodynamics! It's the Law."
Chris Jones, you are doing what itself seems to be impossible putting forth information as you say for the love of God, somebody to kill this thing, or at least suggest a path away from this monstrosity.
If we could only convince them it’s not money that’s gonna make them happy but it’s money that could make everybody happy. Unfortunately, many times things have to get worse before they get better. Let’s hope for the ladder
First of all, great Buffet tune! A friend was talking about that album just the other day.
My Qs: how does the energy used to create a gallon of ethanol compare with the net energy consumed? Also, how much are we paying to subsidize ethanol (financially, not environmentally). Do we effectively pay $1.10 in taxes for every dollar we save at the pump? Thx for your insights Chris!
Life cycle analysis studies put ethanol at any where from -22% to +40% compared to gasoline, with plus being better (for ethanol). The big question is if you factor in land use change that results from the policy.
Hey Tim, Former Cornell University ecologist, David Pimentel was one of the first that I am aware of who studied the very question you asked. He published numerous scientific articles on this very issue back in the early 2000's, over 20 years ago. I recall reading numerous papers about this, which crafted my early disdain for the entire ethanol model. And, like clockwork, the industry went after him. Unfortunately Pimentel has since passed on. More here. https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2005/07/ethanol-biodiesel-corn-and-other-crops-not-worth-energy. One can google his name and come up with numerous articles.
with the current national administration and the current state legislative appointees, i truly believe that the state of this state is currently done. once the breadbasket of the US and maybe the world to becoming the cesspool originator of the current top polluter of the mississippi delta estuary...we now have hundreds of miles of ocean now known as the dead zone, thank you IOWA AG...
You can't stop taxpayer Financed corn Ethanol. After all......those years of Iowa Presidential Caucauses have both Monopoly Parties and everyone from Chuck Grassley to Tom Vilsack and everyone.......
We're stuck....if only something could be done to grow food and flowers....and not Ethanol......
At least the Corn Miners and CAFO Chiefs that run the state have a plan. Last I heard they will defund monitoring Iowa waters? And just ignore any other soil or water related problems?
This is like telling the cops to stop reporting domestic violence calls and magically THE PROBLEM WILL DISAPPEAR!
We have between myself and my daughter/son-in-law 95 acres in SE Linn county, 35 acres in prairie established in 2000, and 27 more just planted 2 years ago, the balance in woodland, ponds and the like. Nary a cow on it either. Its just a wildlife oasis in a sea of "ag". And no dig on the neighbors, they have to depend on the income from corn/bean mining and cattle. Plus they provide huge "food plots" for the creatures. I am lucky to have a "town job "so don't depend on income from the property. Keep up the great work! The Corn CAFO windmill is tilting and may tumble yet!
The, admittedly slow, way out of ethanol in fuel for road vehicles is through the replacement of the existing spark-ignition vehicle fleet with battery-electric vehicles. To generate the electricity needed to charge the batteries in such an electric vehicle fleet would take about 300,000 acres of photovoltaic installations to power, completely power, no petroleum needed, Iowa's share of the fleet, assuming significant nighttime charging and Iowa having about 2 percent of the national vehicle miles of operation. (This assumes 5 to 6 acres per nameplate megawatts, thus the including setbacks, buffers, etc. And yes, Iowa has less than one percent of US population, but it has a lot of through traffic.)
Of course, ethanol producers are claiming that other uses, such as sustainable aircraft fuel (SAF), will provide new markets to keep the demand up. No opinion about that. I will point out that Rastetter saying his SAF plant will be on the Gulf Coast is telling corn growers how he is willing to throw them under the combine. (Sell them down the river might be more apt, but what is your readers' demographic?)
Agricultural economist John Ikerd quoted Fred Kirschenmann, after many years of trying to meet conventional ag halfway, as saying that it won't change until it collapses. Climate change will cause that to happen, most likely within the next 10-15 years, maybe sooner. I'm hoping that my solution will be established by then.
Spot on, as usual. The missing piece of the "effects" puzzle not mentioned here is wildlife, which is tied to habitat, which is tied to water quality. The insatiable drive to put every square inch of this state in beans and corn (to the exclusion of grassland, bugs, potable water, and birds, not to mention pleasing landscapes) makes us all crazy, as well. So, we fight each other in the annual Farm Bureau sponsored Legislative crusade against public land acquisition in Iowa (strangely, no mention is ever made of farmland lost to the really big bucks in development). When we migrated (from Michigan, don't call ICE) here nearly 50 years ago Iowa was a pleasant, diverse ag landscape with clean water and abundant fish and wildlife. Now, not so much.
Also, congratulations on the Jim Wooley Family Tract! That's really something!
Thank you, I am both astonished and deeply honored. I never saw that coming, and it is only made better by it being a complete surprise. I stand on the shoulders of so many Iowans that care about our wildlife and other natural resources... and I am very grateful.
Excellent point about development. I've heard only dead silence from the IFB regarding cropland and pastures being annexed by municipalities and/or turning into classic rural sprawl. The rural sprawl is especially maddening if developers claim (and I've sat in meeting rooms and heard this claim) that a hundred-acre pasture that is going to have thirty scattered expensive homes and their infrastructure will be just as good for wildlife and water quality as the undeveloped pasture.
By coincidence, I also migrated here from Michigan almost fifty years ago. I'd be interested in a detailed comparison of what the Iowa landscape was like then and now. Of course it was more diverse, less developed, and didn't have CAFOs. But I also remember hearing from conservationist friends in 1980 that a lot of water was farm-polluted and stinky, but that no one officially was looking at that or wanted to look. I also remember that rural soil erosion was horrendous, and a lot more cropland was tilled completely black every year. I also seem to remember that the awful practice of straightening streams was more common and less regulated, though I'm not certain. I also remember seeing photos of Iowa gullies from the 1930s that were jaw-dropping, so Iowa wasn't just a paradise back then.
Yes, it was far from perfect "back in the day". But in my nostalgic rear view rambles, "back then" was better, most assuredly from a habitat and ag intensity standpoint. That much is documented. Not certain on water quality.
I'm an Iowa farm boy born in 1958. I always remember the waters being brown from erosion silt but the concentration of ag chemicals was very low. The nitrate levels were considerably less, tiling fields added to the problem, You didn't see the toxic algae blooms like today. If you could stand the grit in your shorts and hair, swimming was okay, no worries about chemical levels. And i guess we won't have to worry anymore, as they are just raising the permissible levels.
"I would make the case that corn ethanol has vulgarized Iowa and corn belt agriculture, turned agribusiness people into avaricious liars and politicians into despicable industry mouthpieces."
Might this explain why this industry has been so supportive of this regime and political party comprised of "avaricious liars and despicable ... mouthpieces"? That authoritarians in business would gravitate to and select for authoritarians in government? Mutually dependent on lies, propaganda, secrecy, and corruption? Operating without oversight, monitoring, and enforcement? Making their own laws and regulations? Trumping the public before Trump?
"Every step in the corn ethanol process" (industrial mono-crop production in general) ... involves the exchange of money with literally no responsibility or accountability for the negative environmental and societal consequences."
In the capital system, all other values are subjugated to the value of the dollar. The value of the "tool" for production always comes first. The "costs"? Well, how do you measure the degraded quality of living for all who live here and are forced to "take it"? And at the same time suffering the indignity of coercion to burn the alcohol "feeding the world" is making? Capital is always first at the feed trough. Values? Shitty seconds.
Interesting observations there
The entire corn-based ethanol story might be the best example I've seen in my career of that age-old saying we in the environmental community have used for years:
"Privatize the profits, socialize the costs."
Excellent analysis, Chris. I have been arguing this for years, but without such detailed analyses that you provided. I enjoyed seeing your numbers. They are convincing.
Given the political power and recalcitrance of the ethanol/corn industry, the ultimate solution is likely to come from replacing ICE vehicles with EVs powered by solar energy--killing the demand for ethanol. In Norway, 98% of new car sales are EVs and plug-in hybrids (with 89% being fully electric). The momentum for this transition in the US has been slowed by the current federal administration, but I believe it is inevitable.
We have seen the numbers: that an acre of solar panels will produce 50 to 100 times more energy than an acre of corn for ethanol (and save our water from a lot of pollution). The big challenge for Iowa in the future will be what to do with all those acres now devoted to producing corn for ethanol. Corn prices are in the basement today. What will happen to corn prices when ethanol disappears, if we don't find an alternative use for that land?
China is also outpacing us in emerging energy technologies while we retreat to horse & buggy days.
Oh to return to the days when, as they used to say in Nebraska, the whiskey was for drinkin and the water was for fightin
At the local gas pump, 10 gallons of E10 (1 gallon of ethanol plus 9 gallons of gasoline) costs less than 9 gallons of gasoline. Ya just have to give it away to get rid of it. This falls in the same category as non-point source pollution, over apply the manure on the field so we can all pretend we don't know where it came from.
“Regulations” like CAFE standards are an attempt to control profiteering and corrupt greed with other values. Without those, free markets eventually self destruct, ruining people and resources in the process. The ethanol crowd is a case in point. But let’s see what the tariffs do to ag. Could be a disaster as the powerful ramp up their siphoning of wealth from the land and people. Thanks, Chris, for your courage to write about these absurdities.
Dwayne Andreas of ADM and good buddy Senator Bob Dole got this giant ball rolling downhill. The first time I heard the phrase "political economy", I had a good idea what it meant. Duane Johnson
( Off-topic, but this short story by Mark Twain is a fun read. https://americanliterature.com/author/mark-twain/short-story/political-economy/ )
Those biofools! Thanks for this Chris. Ethanol has always been the biggest get-rich-quick scam ever. Dems and Reps all praised it all these years that were being developed in Iowa. I once gave a talk at agribusiness U (ISU) outlining why biofuels, especially corn ethanol, are thermodynamically foolish. "Obey thermodynamics! It's the Law."
Chris Jones, you are doing what itself seems to be impossible putting forth information as you say for the love of God, somebody to kill this thing, or at least suggest a path away from this monstrosity.
If we could only convince them it’s not money that’s gonna make them happy but it’s money that could make everybody happy. Unfortunately, many times things have to get worse before they get better. Let’s hope for the ladder
First of all, great Buffet tune! A friend was talking about that album just the other day.
My Qs: how does the energy used to create a gallon of ethanol compare with the net energy consumed? Also, how much are we paying to subsidize ethanol (financially, not environmentally). Do we effectively pay $1.10 in taxes for every dollar we save at the pump? Thx for your insights Chris!
Life cycle analysis studies put ethanol at any where from -22% to +40% compared to gasoline, with plus being better (for ethanol). The big question is if you factor in land use change that results from the policy.
How much it is subsidized depends on the year and current events
I assume this also depends on the source...Farm Bureau will tell you +40%, right?
That high number comes from Argonne National labs which many consider to have been captured by the industry
Hey Tim, Former Cornell University ecologist, David Pimentel was one of the first that I am aware of who studied the very question you asked. He published numerous scientific articles on this very issue back in the early 2000's, over 20 years ago. I recall reading numerous papers about this, which crafted my early disdain for the entire ethanol model. And, like clockwork, the industry went after him. Unfortunately Pimentel has since passed on. More here. https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2005/07/ethanol-biodiesel-corn-and-other-crops-not-worth-energy. One can google his name and come up with numerous articles.
Thx for sharing this. Since it was written 20 yrs ago, I know environmental & financial costs have only skyrocketed.
On a lighter note, how's your baseball book coming along?
with the current national administration and the current state legislative appointees, i truly believe that the state of this state is currently done. once the breadbasket of the US and maybe the world to becoming the cesspool originator of the current top polluter of the mississippi delta estuary...we now have hundreds of miles of ocean now known as the dead zone, thank you IOWA AG...
You can't stop taxpayer Financed corn Ethanol. After all......those years of Iowa Presidential Caucauses have both Monopoly Parties and everyone from Chuck Grassley to Tom Vilsack and everyone.......
We're stuck....if only something could be done to grow food and flowers....and not Ethanol......
Davenporttruecrime.substack.com
Dodobbird.pixels.com (art site. Save the Monarch Butterflies.)
Bravo!
At least the Corn Miners and CAFO Chiefs that run the state have a plan. Last I heard they will defund monitoring Iowa waters? And just ignore any other soil or water related problems?
This is like telling the cops to stop reporting domestic violence calls and magically THE PROBLEM WILL DISAPPEAR!
We have between myself and my daughter/son-in-law 95 acres in SE Linn county, 35 acres in prairie established in 2000, and 27 more just planted 2 years ago, the balance in woodland, ponds and the like. Nary a cow on it either. Its just a wildlife oasis in a sea of "ag". And no dig on the neighbors, they have to depend on the income from corn/bean mining and cattle. Plus they provide huge "food plots" for the creatures. I am lucky to have a "town job "so don't depend on income from the property. Keep up the great work! The Corn CAFO windmill is tilting and may tumble yet!
The, admittedly slow, way out of ethanol in fuel for road vehicles is through the replacement of the existing spark-ignition vehicle fleet with battery-electric vehicles. To generate the electricity needed to charge the batteries in such an electric vehicle fleet would take about 300,000 acres of photovoltaic installations to power, completely power, no petroleum needed, Iowa's share of the fleet, assuming significant nighttime charging and Iowa having about 2 percent of the national vehicle miles of operation. (This assumes 5 to 6 acres per nameplate megawatts, thus the including setbacks, buffers, etc. And yes, Iowa has less than one percent of US population, but it has a lot of through traffic.)
Of course, ethanol producers are claiming that other uses, such as sustainable aircraft fuel (SAF), will provide new markets to keep the demand up. No opinion about that. I will point out that Rastetter saying his SAF plant will be on the Gulf Coast is telling corn growers how he is willing to throw them under the combine. (Sell them down the river might be more apt, but what is your readers' demographic?)
Agricultural economist John Ikerd quoted Fred Kirschenmann, after many years of trying to meet conventional ag halfway, as saying that it won't change until it collapses. Climate change will cause that to happen, most likely within the next 10-15 years, maybe sooner. I'm hoping that my solution will be established by then.