Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Is Obama a Shill for the Ethanol Lobby?

["Vern Green" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

I meant stalks.

 

I am not sure what is in the stalks. I know that they can pull vegetable oil out of any number of plants. The kernels in the corn produce the most volume, but other things can be used. I once had a website that talked about the quality of biofuel from different plants. They were able to even use grass clippings and wood to extract cellulose ethanol.

 

I figure corn stalks would work well for this purpose, however I am not sure.

On Sat, Jul 5, 2008 at 5:02 PM, Christian M. Cepel <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:

Stocks?  or Stalks?  I didn't realize they were particularly rich in oil.  What kind of oil is it?  I thought the oil we used from corn (for cooking), like the carbs we use to make ethanol came from the kernels.

From an agricultural perspective, leaving the stalks behind is an important step.  They are disced back into the soil and aerate and fix nitrogen.  My concern with all this corn growing is that fields need to rest and I think farmers are possibly not practicing smart agriculture and just burning the fields over and over with fertilizer. I've no proof of this, but honestly when something like this becomes such a profitable enterprise, do you continue to practice responsible agricultural practices, or do you milk it for what you can while it lasts.

Vern Green wrote:

I have also wondered why we cannot use the stocks of the corn that is left in the field, the yield might not be as high, but the oil extracted from it should work.

On Wed, Jul 2, 2008 at 10:12 PM, Nowlin, Dan <EMAIL:PROTECTED> wrote:

What need to happen with ethanol is to get off of this kick of using
corn and start using switch grass.  It grows everywhere corn can grow
and is not used for anything, well maybe grazing.  The ethanol output of
this grass is a lot higher then with corn.

--
Daniel Nowlin
DataCenter Tech III
TelCom DataCenter

-----Original Message-----
From: EMAIL:PROTECTED
[mailto:EMAIL:PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mike Miller
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 23:52
To: MLUG Off-Topic Discussion
Subject: Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] Is Obama a Shill for the Ethanol Lobby?

On Wed, 2 Jul 2008, Jack Smith wrote:

> On Wed, 2008-07-02 at 19:37 -0500, Mike Miller wrote:
>
>> I used to think ethanol was good, but now I think it is wasting too
much
>> good farm land.  It's working for Brazil but they can grow lots of
extra
>> sugar cane, apparently.
>
> I wouldn't say that it is wasting farm land at all. By definition,
> wasting something means getting little to no benefit from it.

But the return on the energy investment is pretty poor.  Are they being
subsidized or otherwise encouraged to get into the ethanol business?  It

isn't just a free market situation, is it?

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Christian M. Cepel - Thistledowne Productions - http://thistledowne.org
Computer Support Specialist, Sr. - University of Missouri - Columbia
College of Education - School of Info Science & Learning Technologies
VRCbd, KidTools & StrategyTools Support Systems Projects, and Truman,
Library Whistlestop Project - Web Design & Programming - 573.999.2370

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