Corn biofuels will expand Gulf of Mexico 'dead zone':  

AFP has an article on the likely impact of the expanding ethanol market on the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

A planned increase in US ethanol production from corn would spell environmental "disaster" for marine species in the Gulf of Mexico, said a co-author of a science study published Monday.

A boost in corn production will worsen the Gulf's so-called "dead zone," an area with so little oxygen that sealife suffocates, said Simon Donner, a geographer at the University of British Columbia in Western Canada.

"Most organisms are not able to survive without enough oxygen," Donner told AFP. "All the bottom-dwelling organisms that can't move away are probably going to die, while fish will migrate if they can."

Donner and Chris Kucharik of the University of Wisconsin used computer models to conclude that growing enough corn to meet US biofuel goals set for 2022 would cause a boost of 10 to 34 percent in nitrogen pollution in the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers, which run into the Gulf of Mexico.

In turn, the study said, there will be more than a 95 percent probability of failure in American targets to reduce the Gulf dead zone.

The study is published Monday in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Journal of Sciences.

The Gulf's dead zone, first measured about three decades ago, has grown to cover an area as large as 20,000 square kilometers (12,400 square miles) each summer in the Gulf, which is ringed by the southern United States, Mexico and Cuba.

The zone is caused indirectly by nitrogen fertilizers used on cornfields in states like Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin. Excess nitrogen runs into the Mississippi River, becomes nitrate, and feeds algae growth. When the algae eventually dies it sinks to the bottom and rots, a process that sucks oxygen out of the water and kills all other life forms.

A few days ago, someone here posted a link to a story about skyrocketing farmland prices in the Midwest. It really made me angry to think about the inflationary chain reaction and the vicious chain of events our politicians have set into motion with these ethanol mandates. It made me even angrier to think that the few who benefit from these policies defend their right to siphon money from the rest of us and into their pockets. (I will be the first to say that surging energy prices are a big component of surging inflation, but with the ethanol mandates we are throwing jet fuel on an already raging fire).

This all started out innocently enough. Oil prices were climbing. Our energy production was shifting to an ever greater extent to countries that are hostile to the U.S.

So, Step 1 in the chain is to propose a solution ...

Who Benefits

The primary beneficiaries are commercial corn (and other commodity) farmers who purchased their land prior to the mandates. They are truly experiencing a windfall from these policies, and thus will fight the hardest to continue down this ill-advised road. A lot of millionaires have been made in Iowa as farmland prices quadrupled.

Secondary beneficiaries are lobbyists who defend the practice, those who are willing to write papers (commissioned by the National Corn Growers Association) that shift the blame, and pandering politicians with constituents that benefit from the current policies.

Who Doesn't

The ethanol producer isn’t even consistently benefiting (unless they are also corn farmers). Ethanol producers are starting to realize that the energy business is often low margin (and cyclical), and not as lucrative as they once thought. When an overbuilding cycle occurs, prices crash. When prices crash, the call for more mandates is raised by ethanol producers who are facing financial trouble. Wash, rinse, repeat. After all, we must bail those out who make poor financial decisions. This is national security, for God's sake! If we don't bail them out with more mandates, the terrorists win. More mandates are certainly needed to rectify this.

The cattle rancher (like my Dad) and pig and poultry farmers get hurt from higher feed prices that cut into already razor-thin (or negative) margins. For our corn farming friends who love to defend these mandates, I would really appreciate it if you would explain to me why it’s OK for you to pull money out of my Dad’s pocket and put it into yours. I know your argument is that you deserve to make a good living. Well, so does he (don't we all!), but your profits are at his expense. But hey, you are getting yours, so you will defend the practice. Just don't expect me to keep quiet about the impacts.

The person trying to buy farmland is hurt by land prices that have exploded as a result of the mandates (unless they inherit family land).

The environment suffers as the mandated corn production means more herbicide, pesticide, and fertilizer usage, some of which ends up in our waterways.

The person who eats is hurt because higher commodity prices ripple through their food budgets, already stretched because of increasing energy costs.