Why Monsanto loves ethanol (#2 in the Monsanto Hat Trick)

[nosmokes]

original-salon


Why Monsanto loves ethanol

Andrew Leonard

American farmers, spurred by ethanol frenzy, are planting the largest corn crop in more than 50 years.The demand is so high, reports Farm News, that seed companies are running out of the most popular varieties of corn seed.

At the top of the list are "triple stack hybrids" sold mostly by Monsanto-owned subsidiaries. A triple stack hybrid combines genetic modifications that result in three different "traits." In this case, the corn comes with built-in resistance to Monsanto's Roundup herbicide, and built-in insecticides that target two of the corn plant's most fearsome foes, the dreaded corn borer and the equally devastating corn rootworm. (The corn borer and corn rootworm toxins are derived from two different subspecies of the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis -- triple stack hybrids thus include two different "Bt" genetic modification "events.")

For Monsanto, the apparent popularity of triple stack hybrid corn seed is an opportunity to tout the market's embrace of its latest products. For critics of GM corn, the rush to such varieties presages a future filled with weeds that evolve to resist Roundup and new generations of corn borers and rootworms that shrug off Bt toxins.

No doubt Monsanto plans to come up with new, "improved" corn seed products that will target new, improved pests, and will be able to resist new, improved herbicides. That is the treadmill that the human race has put itself on, and whether we'll ever be able to get off of it seems a highly doubtful proposition, unless food prices rise so high that biofuels become politically impossible. But that dreary quagmire is not the point of this post.
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complete article here

[robinlynne]

1. sugar makes cheaper, better ethanol... why corn? doesn't make sense.

at least 1/3 of the US has the climate to grow sugar.

[Buzz Clik]

4. Well, maybe...

Only a tiny fraction of the US could grow sugar cane, but sugar beets could be grown all over the place. Perhaps if the demands on sugar get high enough or if the use of sugar for alcohol gets profitable enough then we'll see a resurgence of sugar beets.

[DCKit]

5. There is no sugar beet lobby.

But corn is BIG business.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. Cheaper Yes. Better, No

Ethanol is ethanol. CH3CH2OH. That's it. The only thing left is to distill it to get rid of the other organic compounds that result from fermentation of sugars. If the distillation system is effective, the original source makes no difference.

A technical point, but not nitpicking.
The Professor

[Buzz Clik]

2. ALERT: this is NOT an ethanol thread -- it's another anti-GM rant.

[KansDem]

3. Corn borers and corn rootworms are to Monsanto what terrorists are to BushCo

As long as they're around, there's money to be had.

And while we're on the subject, I've never understood this mad dash to ethanol. It seems we're not even considering other renewable energies for fuel. And won't reliance on grain-based fuel increase demand for what is essentially an agricultural product? Doesn't this have the capacity to do damage to farming around the world?

And why replace one finite source with another finite source?

[Buzz Clik]

6. I'm confused -- you don't consider ethanol renewable?

[nosmokes]

7. not corn ethanol, no. ETOH makwes a whole lot of sense in brazil

where cane grows easily aand abundantly and a network for delivery was already mostly in place. ethanol here in the states doesn't make anywhere near as much sense as bio-diesel which can be produced locally (meaning we can get rid of huge oil companies), isn't anywhere near as volatile, and veg oil can be used in the kitchen first and then recycled as a motor fuel which can't be done with ethanol. ethanol takes a lot of energy to produce while biodiesel pretty requires squeezing and filtering w/ a minimum of refinement.

[robinlynne]

9. agreed. i think renewable energy will have to be several different sources. not just one.

The used restaurant oil is fantastic! It is not enough to run the cars in the country. and making vegetable oil gets us to the same place as making ethanol. If we were to go one route, I would vote for electric cars with solar panels. I think, as soon as we get a better governemnt, we will need biodiesel and ethanol and electric cars and solar and windpower and probably many more new sources of renewable energy. I am ready to get rid of my gasoline car. When I took a look at biodiesel, and ahving to buy a car with a diesel engine, it is really expensive, adn expensive to upkeep. personally, I'm waiitng for an electric car and would be willing to pay a lot more than for a gas or biodiesel or ethanol car.

but the ethanol switch is really simple. It's no big deal. not a big change to the cars, not a big change to the system. I dont think it is as good for the environment. it is certainly a pollutant. The only real change would be not giving our mney to big oil. and that is positive no matter what.
I'm babbling.
off to work.

[nosmokes]

11. what you do is buy a used mercedes diesel and

then you have a quality car getting reasonable milage that's gonna last for 300k miles - also a kind thing for the environment. the reason you buy a used one is they'll void your warranty on a new one if you use SVO diesel. but you can pick up up a nice well maintained MB that has more life in it than 90% of the new crap on the market and for half the price and you're driving a quality vehicle.

[robinlynne]

14. yes, but to fix a mercedes is completely out of my possibilities! every little

tiny thing you need, a tuneup say, is a fortune! and since biodiesel here in LA is at teh same rpice as gasloine, and I ahve to go a bit far to get it, the cost is just tremendous! A good friend of mine tried that, the keepup cost of a mercedes is un-doable. I have never owned a new car, so I'm not comparing to the price of a new luxury car. not in my league.
I would spend the money for a new electric car, however. no tuneups. no oil changes, no broken whatever's. they last. they don't break. that's why GM killed them. you odnt have to buy parts, except a battery after 10 years or so.

[DCKit]

10. Not to mention:

Hemp oil - a direct replacement for diesel fuel
Biodiesel
Solar power
Wind power
Wave power
reformation - poop, plants, biomass + pressure + heat + H20 = oil + solid carbon at 85% efficiency

We need to do a little of everything and completely free ourselves of overseas dependence.

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. Simple. Finite = scarcity. Scarcity = profits. nt

[LaPera]

13. No one really thought BushCo wanted to lead us into clean, cheap safe renewable energy....Did they?

It's ALL about profits and keeping us strung out on their polluting killing energy..fucking republicans!