Had a bit of an argument with some crunchy moms this morning…
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One of the things that struck me on my recent cross country drive was the sheer magnitude of corn growing across hundreds of miles of plains in the Us. Everywhere there was corn. Everywhere.
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@bachophile said in Had a bit of an argument with some crunchy moms this morning…:
One of the things that struck me on my recent cross country drive was the sheer magnitude of corn growing across hundreds of miles of plains in the Us. Everywhere there was corn. Everywhere.
Interesting statistic I ran across - to generate all electricity used in the US with only solar would require a little under 20k square miles of land. That’s less than a third of the amount of land currently in use for just corn-based ethanol.
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Interesting statistic I ran across - to generate all electricity used in the US with only solar would require a little under 20k square miles of land. That’s less than a third of the amount of land currently in use for just corn-based ethanol.
But that would presume a way to store enough energy to make it through the days with no or little sun. Which we don't have. Which makes the point a little moot.
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This is a simple factual comparison about land efficiency of corn ethanol
vs solar. Nothing moots it, it’s simply a testable empirical question.We can’t exactly generate all our electricity from corn ethanol either. Doesn’t change anything about my post.
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That other 40k square miles would hold a lot of batteries.
Also that amount of ethanol only represents about 8% of the total amount of energy we use in generating electricity. So you’d need like 12x the amount of land currently dedicated to ethanol to be in equivalent range.
DON’T let them eat cake.
- RFK Jr -
@jon-nyc said in Had a bit of an argument with some crunchy moms this morning…:
That other 40k square miles would hold a lot of batteries.
Also that amount of ethanol only represents about 8% of the total amount of energy we use in generating electricity. So you’d need like 12x the amount of land currently dedicated to ethanol to be in equivalent range.
Ok, now let’s talk about the amount of earth that has to be mined to make those batteries.
If you’re uncomfortable with ethanol, just think of it as a solar derivative in liquid form.
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There’s no reason for a simple fact about relative land efficiency to make you guys so defensive. You can just acknowledge it and continue hating on solar for reasons other than land use.
There are plenty of arguments against corn ethanol, let inefficient land use just add one to their number.
DON’T let them eat cake.
- RFK Jr -
@jon-nyc said in Had a bit of an argument with some crunchy moms this morning…:
There’s no reason for a simple fact about relative land efficiency to make you guys so defensive. You can just acknowledge it and continue hating on solar for reasons other than land use.
There are plenty of arguments against corn ethanol, let inefficient land use just add one to their number.
Oh, I agree. I just don’t think wind would be more efficient. Actual food crops would be nice.
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@jon-nyc said in Had a bit of an argument with some crunchy moms this morning…:
@bachophile said in Had a bit of an argument with some crunchy moms this morning…:
One of the things that struck me on my recent cross country drive was the sheer magnitude of corn growing across hundreds of miles of plains in the Us. Everywhere there was corn. Everywhere.
Interesting statistic I ran across - to generate all electricity used in the US with only solar would require a little under 20k square miles of land. That’s less than a third of the amount of land currently in use for just corn-based ethanol.
That'd be a great use for Nevada.
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Resistance is futile.
Pollen rides the wind currents and goes where it will. Very few strains of corn have no modified genes.
And...Just in the last couple of hundred years...Golden Bantam is one of the very few heritage sweet corn plants. It came along in the late 1800's and popularity really took off early in the 1900's when you could start to buy it commercially. Until then, yellow corn was for horse feed, people usually ate white corn, mostly as corn meal, roasting ears, grits or hominy.
But, Golden Bantam is a cross between even older yellow sweet varieties.
Now, having said all that, how many of you have ever grown Golden Bantam? It has a really good taste, sweet, but with a lot of "corn" flavor. And as far as I'm concerned, the juice ain't worth the squeeze. I can plant a good hybrid...Maybe an old one like Merit or Funk's G90, or a newer one like Peaches&Cream. It will make twice the ears, be sweeter and have a longer window of sweetness to pick it in. GB makes small ears and you better watch it like a hawk or you'll miss the best flavor window.
GB works best for the backyard gardener who wants enough corn to eat fresh and put up a few ears, while keeping costs down by saving seeds. I'd rather pay $20, plant four rows and make 400 or 500 ears.
