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[paxamicus AT earthlink.net]

I heard Michael Pollan on The Kitchen Sisters the other day, and he  
said something astounding, paraphrase is that it takes 3/4 of a gallon  
of oil to produce 1 gallon of ethanol.

Not what you were asking, really, but interesting and in the same  
vein. I don't know if it's accurate.


On Oct 19, 2008, at 1:04 PM, Marie McHarry wrote:

> On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 12:24 AM, EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>  
> wrote:
>
> > Propane to dry corn???  Seriously?  Is this a common practice?  I  
> > wonder
> > how much fuel we use to dry crops a year?  I had no clue that crops  
> > were
> > dried like that.  I guess I always thought it was just allowed to dry
> > naturally.  I guess I am showing my ignorance on the subject.
> Yes, it's the standard practice in these parts. Of course, it didn't
> used to be back in the day when corn dried on the stalk and then was
> stored on the ear in corn cribs where it could continue to dry. Now
> it's shelled as it's picked. At some point farmers will probably
> return to the old practice.