More Myth Dispelling
Posted: February 28, 2008
Before attending Commodity Classic in Nashville, NCGA’s CEO Rick Tolman spoke to the National Ethanol Conference in Orlando, FL. Like many of the speakers he dealt with the irresponsible reporting in the media about ethanol head on with plenty of facts and figures. In fact, I think Rick gave the most comprehensive look at the reality of this segment of the biofuels industry in terms that even a slow witted journalist can understand.
You can listen to Rick’s speech here:
Rick used some great graphics to help make his points.
I really liked this one showing how far we’ve come in this country at increasing the number of bushels grown per acre. It shows that in 1944 we got 2.8 billion bushels of corn off of 85 million acres while just last year we got 13.1 billion bushels off the same number of acres. His point being that 
we’re getting more efficient in corn production. He also pointed out that companies like Monsanto are projecting that we’ll double the number of bushels harvested per acre in the near future as technology continues to develop. At the same time the amount of inputs like chemicals and fertilizer is decreasing.
I especially love his analysis of water use for growing corn. It’s too bad that when people try to use that topic as a negative they neglect to mention that the majority of it is rain that falls on the ground regardless of what’s being grown on it. I’ve heard Rick speak many times and I think this is one of the best presentations I’ve heard him give. It’s worth a listen which is why I have it recorded for you