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  • From: <activism98201@verizon.net>
  • To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Increase In Ethanol Production From CornCould Signific
  • Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 02:58:22 -0500 (CDT)

The myths of BIOFUELS, meaning trying to convert ANY living fodder for
purposes of widespread use.

None of this will scale, not sugar cane, which is higher density energy,
"switch grass," or Jatropha!

I have no problem with people here and there doing any of this, but when it
starts being subsidized by governments and then pushed to commercial
industrial scales then only bad things will happen.

Excerpt from http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=480

"unfortunately what is actually happening does not support this optimistic
view that jatropha will provide poor farmers with both cheap energy and
significant income. In Africa and Asia there are serious concerns about
jatropha’s environmental and social impacts. Western Australia has even
banned it because of its toxicity to humans and animals, and because of its
capacity quickly to become a hard-to-control, invasive weed.

"Then there is the oft-repeated claim that farmers can grow jatropha without
irrigation on poor soils. This is technically the case, but yields are so low
in these conditions that the crop’s viability becomes questionable. Indian
studies show that, without irrigation, the average yield after five years is
1.1–2.75 tonnes per hectare, compared with 5.25–12.5 tonnes per hectare
with irrigation. [2] It seems likely that, instead of being grown in marginal
areas, jatropha production for agrofuels will compete directly with the
production of food crops on the most fertile, irrigated lands."

Read the whole article.

Stick close to your land and use it to grow food.


-Mark Nagel
Everett, WA


=====================
From: Phil Bunch <pbunch@cox.net>
Date: 2007/10/30 Tue PM 08:09:04 CDT
To: 'Healthy soil and sustainable growing' <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Increase In Ethanol Production From CornCould
Significant


When you refer to the myth of biofuels are you looking at grainbased
production or all biofuel production. I’mthinking of permanent crops like
Jatropha curcas.





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