Comments on: Cars and People Compete for Grain

By: Tim Auld

Tim Auld — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 00:36:13 +0000

Yes, pasture and tree fodder is the best feed for cattle. The point I was making though, is that extracting ethanol from the corn starch can result in a net increase in food supply because DDG is a better cattle feed than corn, plus the CO2 for greenhouse production (and therefore don’t necessarily increase food prices or indirectly change land use). It saves manure pollution at the feedlot too. The same thing can be done for fodder beets, cassava, cattails, etc.

Brown frames the issue in a way that doesn’t even recognise these coproducts and subtleties, and relies on the abundant cheap grain produced by destructive industrial agriculture for his moral argument. Basically it doesn’t advance the debate and continues the tired arguments that get us nowhere.

By: pete

pete — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 05:24:34 +0000

Dried distillers grain is an awful cattle feed and is known to cause e-coli and other health problems. The actual solution is to return the corn ground to pasture and grass finish the beeves. This will greatly reduce petroleum and chemical use.

Tim is right about the dumping of grain. But the problem still manifests itself in world food prices, regardless of whether the corn is exported or not. It also manifests it in the clearing of land worldwide for biofuels.

By: Tim Auld

Tim Auld — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 23:40:39 +0000

When ethanol is made from something like corn, there is a product left over called distillers dried grains (DDG). Corn is grown primarily for animal feed, especially cattle, not direct human consumption. DDG has all the fat and nutrients, and even more protein (from the dead yeast) than the original corn. It is a better cattle feed even with the volume reduction as they don’t digest starch very well. Carbon dioxide and heat from the fermentation process can also be used to accelerate greenhouse production (this has been done at ADM).

It’s also worth mentioning that a small amount of ethanol blended with gasoline has a large effect on reducing toxic vehicle emissions such as carbon monoxide, which is why it’s mandated by the EPA.

From a permaculture perspective, dumping cheap grain on poor countries as Brown is advocating is not people care or earth care. That practice alone, facilitated by local market destroying free trade agreements has turned once self-reliant nations into beggars.