permaculture

[Marimike6@cs.com]

It should also be noted that byproducts of the push to grow more corn for 
ethanol are

(1) The depletion of soils in the Corn Belt. In terms of volume, much of the 
land in Iowa is up to three feet lower in height than the sills of houses 
built in the 19th century. This soil has been used up and gone down de river.

http://www.growbiointensive.org/biointensive/soil.html

(2) The Dead Zone. Much of those nitrates farmers have bought and applied to 
the soil ended up in the corn. The rest washed out and were swept into the 
Gulf of Mexico.

http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/seminars/990713DD.html

http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040612/bob9.asp

(3) Loss of income. Not the corn farmers-- everyone else! We pay massive 
subsidies to these people in our federal taxes, to make the numbers work. If 
ethanol had to pay its own way (for that matter, if gasoline had to pay its 
own 
way) things would look much different.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/031128.html

http://www.taxpayer.net/energy/ethanol.htm

http://www.cato.org/dailys/7-10-97.html

Michael Elvin