Corn ethanol saved the day for Betty Boop in a cartoon that was made in 1939.
John Voelcker at GreenCarReports.com uncovered this classic cartoon featuring the power of “corn dripp’ns” as a fuel for Betty’s roadster in “Musical Mountaineers.” Little Miss Boop runs out of gas in hillbilly country and finds help from some musical mountaineers who get her on her way again by filling her tank with moonshine made from corn. Voelcker says, “Meanwhile, we can’t help but wonder if there was a nice little “Flex-Fuel” E85 Ethanol logo on the back of that roadster?”
The claims of food naturalists about the grass-fed beef cattle of yesteryear may be somewhat mythological.
James McWilliams, author of the opinion column “Freakonomics” on the New York Times blog, has a great article this week on “The Myth of Grass-Fed Beef.” McWilliams notes that the environmentalists who favor grass-fed beef as more natural and sustainable claim that “Before WW II, most Americans had never eaten corn-fed beef.”
Yet McWilliams finds references from agricultural journals as far back as 1822 promoting corn as a means of fattening cattle for meat. Not taking sides on the debate of whether grass-fed beef is healthier or more sustainable, McWilliams is just interested in making sure the truth is told. “I’m only suggesting to advocates of the grass-fed option that, if they feel so compelled to draw on the past to support the present, they should start by providing some footnotes,” he writes. “The romance of a pasture-fed past will only take the story so far.”
Actually, the widespread use of corn as livestock feed is a relatively recent development that allows us to enjoy a wide variety of fresh and affordable meat and poultry on a daily basis. Before World War II most Americans did not have that luxury. Animals eat about half the corn we produce every year and turn it into a tasty source of protein for us. And that is no myth.
The report by economist John Urbanchuk with LECG, says that even as Iowa struggles to emerge from this economic downturn, the production of biodiesel and ethanol is boosting the agriculture sector of Iowa’s economy.
“2009 was a year of recovery for the renewable fuels industry,” said Urbanchuk. “While all of the Iowa ethanol plants idled in 2008 were brought back on line, the biodiesel industry was particularly hard hit during 2009 and the industry outlook is clouded by the failure of Congress to reauthorize the biodiesel excise tax credit that expired on December 31.”
According to the report, “Contribution of the Biofuels Industry to the Economy of Iowa,” Urbanchuk found that ethanol and biodiesel producers are part of a manufacturing sector that adds substantial value to agricultural commodities produced in Iowa and makes a significant contribution to the state’s economy.
* Accounts for nearly $11.5 billion, or about 8 percent, to Iowa GDP
* Generates $2.3 billion of household income for Iowa households
* Supports more than 70,000 jobs through the entire Iowa economy
* Boosts state tax revenue by $532 million.
Research by Purdue agronomist Tony Vyn has shown that corn plants are in a fierce battle with each other for resources.
“There is a hierarchy that is formed, even though the plants are genetically the same and should be equal in size and stature,” Vyn said about his findings, which were published in the early online version of the journal Soil & Tillage Research. “No-till corn yield reductions have little to do with an overall height reduction early in the season. They have more to do with height variability during vegetative growth.”
Vyn said yield losses of up to 14 percent can be attributed to this competition in no-till fields where corn is planted the year after corn. In those fields, the leftover corn residue creates patches of soil with lower temperatures and different water and nutrient content. Seeds planted there are at a disadvantage.
Thanks to the “Blend Your Own” BYO Ethanol campaign, motorists in Sioux Falls, SD now have more fuel choices at the pump with the installation of four new ethanol blender pumps at a Kings Mart gas station in the city.
“This a huge accomplishment for the corn and ethanol industry to unveil a blender pump in Sioux Falls. Corn farmers take great pride in helping to produce over a billion gallons of ethanol in our great state, and installing infrastructure like this moves our industry in the right direction,” said David Fremark, President of the South Dakota Corn Utilization Council.
The BYO Ethanol campaign was launched last year as a partnership between ACE, the Renewable Fuels Association, the National Corn Growers Association and leading corn-producing states such as South Dakota. The campaign works to show gas station owners the benefits of blending ethanol and using blender pumps to provide choices for motorists.
The Sioux Falls blender pump location joins 40 other locations across South Dakota and around 150 nationwide. ACE offers an on-line map of blender pump sites.
“If you have formed the habit of checking on every new diet that comes along, you will find that, mercifully, they all blur together, leaving you with only one definite piece of information: french-fried potatoes are out.” ~ American author Jean Kerr
A new study from the University of Hawaii has found that most fast food restaurants on the island of Oahu use corn oil to make their french fries, which they say is the “least healthy choice” of the five major cooking oils. The others are sunflower, safflower, canola and soybean. But they also found that non-chain restaurants used corn oil less than the chains.
This study has generated quite a few stories from both mainstream and medical media about how bad corn is for us and how the fast food restaurants must have “sweetheart deals” with corporate suppliers because corn oil is pricier than other oils.
Corn oil is more expensive than soybean oil (for example) when purchased from a small business supplier, suggesting that large-scale corporate agreements are necessary to make corn oil frying cost-effective. When considering French fry oil along with corn-fed beef and chicken, as well as high-fructose corn syrup–sweetened soda, we see the pervasive influence of corn as an ingredient in national chain fast food.
So, the study was not so much about health as about the pervasiveness of corn in our food supply – since everyone pretty much agrees that french fries in any oil could hardly be considered health food. Like so many foods, a steady diet of french fries may not be good for us – but they do go so well with burgers and sodas! Even Cameron Diaz loves fries – “French fries. I love them. Some people are chocolate and sweets people. I love French fries. That and caviar.”
I do question the findings of the study when applied nationwide, since soybean oil generally accounts for almost 80% of all oil used in commercial food production in the United States. Corn oil is just as good and excellent for cooking because it can withstand high temperatures without smoking, but it is usually more expensive, and amounts to less than 10 percent of the oil used in food production. So, I suspect that if this study were done nationwide there might be different results since fast food suppliers do vary regionally, and Hawaii could very well be an anomaly.
Regardless, this is most definitely yet another “cornaphobic” study designed to strike fear into the hearts of french fry lovers everywhere who are worried about the evil corn empire taking over the world. And, yes, I’ll have some fries with that.
The Environmental Working Group takes aim at an earlier post wherein we discuss the ability of corn farmers to grow more corn per acre. Here’s what we said: “In 2007, farmers grew 150.7 bushels per acre. In 2009, the number rose to 165.2 bushels per acre.”
“But corn-ethanol production increased six times faster between 2007-2009 than the 10% increase in yield cited by the corn grower’s [sic].”
We concur that there was a 10 percent increase in the yield between 2007 and 2009. Corn use for ethanol increases from 3.049 billion bushels to an estimated 4.200 billion bushels. This is a 38 percent increase, not “six times faster” but, rather, 3.8 “times faster.”
EWG uses an increase in corn ethanol production as a comparison, not the increase in corn used for ethanol. When you are talking about growing corn to meet needs, the former is really the more appropriate statistic to compare.
But … Is there a problem with the fact that we had a 10 percent yield increase and a 38 percent increase in corn usage for ethanol? Not really, because comparing these two percentages is comparing apples and oranges. Yield increases tell us we are growing more per acre, not more corn absolutely. Hence, even with this 10 percent increase, corn production this year was less than 1 percent more than 2007.
We also need to understand overall supply and demand issues. Even with 1.2 billion more bushels of corn going into ethanol in 2009, our demand from the other categories has decreased or leveled to the point where the carry-out, the amount of corn held back as a sort of surplus for the next year, is 9 percent higher.
Frankly, EWG should be happy we’re growing more corn on fewer acres. For some reason, they just can’t muster much excitement about it.
(Private note to my kids … This is why you need to do your math homework! It will be useful)
The Renewable Fuels Association did an analysis of the study, titled “Corn Ethanol and Wildlife,” that pretty much refutes everything the NWF claims. The RFA concludes that “selective and questionable use of data, unclear research methods, and emotional arguments cast doubt on the reliability of the conclusions and recommendations.”
The authors deliberately pick and choose certain data from certain years to support their conclusions. In many cases, the authors selected agricultural data points that are obvious outliers when viewed in the context of both mid- and long-term historical trends. As one example, the paper uses 2004 and 2007 data for comparisons of planted corn acres, but uses 2007 and 2009 data for a comparison of acreage enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).
RFA also notes that USDA data clearly show that recent expansion of corn acres nationally and in the four-state region examined in the NWF report came through crop switching, not through the conversion of native grassland, since total crop acres in the four states actually declined slightly from 2004 to 2007. On top of that, the NWF report uses “grossly outdated assumptions about growth in average corn yield per acre and the amount of ethanol yielded per bushel of corn” to suggest the biofuel requirements of the expanded Renewable Fuels Standard will demand an additional 10.69 million acres of corn by 2015 over 2009 levels.
The good news is that this report is generating virtually no coverage in the “mainstream media.” Maybe the media is too busy these days actually covering real news rather than made-up studies with an agenda.
“In this high-tech information age few look to the most basic industries as sources of national economic power. Yet no sector in America is better positioned for the future than agriculture–if we allow it to reach its potential.”
Thus begins a new article in Forbes Magazine by Joel Kotkin that is providing a breath of fresh air amidst the daily dose of anti-Ag fare that he openly calls a “troubling assault.”
The piece which touches on everything from pro-organic, anti-GMO, and the green movement, to shutting off the water to California’s once hugely productive Salinas Valley is causing quite a stir online and in Social Media circles from Twitter to Facebook.
“A formula that works for high-end foodies of the Bay Area or Manhattan can’t produce enough affordable food to feed the masses–whether in Minnesota or Mumbai. The emerging war on agriculture threatens not only the livelihoods of millions of American workers; it could undermine our ability to help feed the world.”
Kotkin, distinguished presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University. He is also an adjunct fellow at the Legatum Institute in London, says the fact that the attacks on mainstream agriculture are leaching into the policy arena is perhaps the most disturbing development of what he call America’s Agricultural Angst.
Thanks Joel for taking the “ romantic model being promoted by Time and agri-intellectuals like Michael Pollan” and applying a dose of reality.
For the price of a few minutes worth of education about agriculture, people in several different states have a chance to win $5000 worth of groceries. Seems like a pretty good deal!
Agricultural organizations in Michigan, Missouri, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio have banded together for the ag literacy sweepstakes on “FarmersFeedUS.org” featuring poster farmers and ranchers for each state. You have to watch at least one of the videos to enter the contest, and to do that you just click on your state and choose from producers of dairy, beef, pork, corn, soybeans, poultry, eggs, and more.
One would hope that a year’s worth of groceries would be good incentive for anyone to take a few minutes and watch a video about food production. What is crazy is that we even have to do this. Farmers and ranchers should be out on the job putting food on our tables, instead of having to resort to bribery to educate the public about how that food is produced. Agriculture is having to bribe people to learn about what we do, because what they don’t know can and already does hurt us. We are hoping that if they know us better and understand better how food is produced that people won’t pass laws that hurt our ability to feed the world.
John Voelcker at GreenCarReports.com uncovered this classic cartoon featuring the power of “corn dripp’ns” as a fuel for Betty’s roadster in “Musical Mountaineers.” Little Miss Boop runs out of gas in hillbilly country and finds help from some musical mountaineers who get her on her way again by filling her tank with moonshine made from corn. Voelcker says, “Meanwhile, we can’t help but wonder if there was a nice little “Flex-Fuel” E85 Ethanol logo on the back of that roadster?”
James McWilliams, author of the opinion column “Freakonomics” on the New York Times blog, has a great article this week on 
The report by economist John Urbanchuk with LECG, says that even as Iowa struggles to emerge from this economic downturn, the production of biodiesel and ethanol is boosting the agriculture sector of Iowa’s economy. 
Research by Purdue agronomist Tony Vyn has shown that corn plants are in a fierce battle with each other for resources.
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Agricultural organizations in Michigan, Missouri, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio have banded together for the ag literacy sweepstakes on