Derek

The corn belt grew more acres of corn in 1980 before ethanol than today with record amounts of ethanol. 2024 Iowa 12,900,000 acres of corn with record ethanol production 1980 Iowa 14,000,000 acres of corn before ethanol 2024 Illinois 10,800,000 acres of corn with record ethanol production 1980 Illinois 11,600,000 acres of corn before ethanol 2024 Indiana 5,200,000 acres of corn with record ethanol production 1980 Indiana 6,450,000 acres of corn before ethanol quickstats.nass.usda.gov/res… Note that none of those acres were no till in 1980 and there were no cover crops planted then either. Today there is a lot and it is growing. Corn ethanol is a value-added product of >>>already existing<<< feed production acres which preserves the feed in a healthier and more productive triple-concentrated form called distillers grains. If we ended ethanol with another Rockefeller funded style of Prohibition, we would still grow the very same amount of corn. In fact, the US had the most corn acres ever in 1932 at >113 million acres during Prohibition. The amount of corn grown is solely determined by the protein requirements and cattle herd size on feed, not ethanol production. No corn is grown just for ethanol, far too uneconomical to do so. But with the feed factor (i.e. distillers grains), few other sources can compete with corn. We should value-add all corn to the healthier distillers grains. If we did we could have E20, not as good as E30 in Brazil but better than E10. We can't have E30 with corn as the source unless we eat more beef. The US used 11,160,933 tons total fertilizer on corn in 1980, before ethanol. In 2018, the number 2 record for ethanol production, the US used 10,521,850 tons total fertilizer on corn. ers.usda.gov/data-products/f… 100% of the fertilizer and everything from the soil still gets fed to livestock in the distillers grains. Ethanol comes from only things of the air: solar energy, CO2, and water with the latter two recycled once burnt. Ethanol C2H6O = no fertilizer Distillers grains = all the fertilizer What logic is it to then assign all the energy and CO2 of fertilizer and soil problems to ethanol and none to distillers grains? Gabe Brown, a farmer from North Dakota, grew corn and he was building soil, not losing it. youtube.com/watch?v=4R7mX6pC…