Letters to the Editor
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Corn/EtOH Good for Farmers for Now--Not for Long
Prior to the ethanol craze, the price of corn had not changed significantly since the 1970's. Soy beans were more profitable. Only the best farmers survived.
It is very important for corn farmers to rotate crops to prevent depletion of nitrogen from the soil. Even with rotation, it is necessary to supplement nitrogen with fertilizer. Without rotation, planting corn on corn on corn will "wear the soil out" and it will cease to be productive.
Another problem that farmers will have in the next planting is that the price of fertilizer is skyrocketing because the bulk transport of fertilizer and corn has been disrupted.
Prior to ethanol, corn was transported by rail and barge from the midwest to ports in the South. Once the rail or barges were unloaded, they were re-loaded with fertilizer. Now, the corn is processed to ethanol in the midwest. The ethanol is transported by unit trains around the United States. There are no empty barges or rail cars for transporting fertilizer.
I'm glad that farmers are seeing some relief from low prices but fear that they will pay a terrible price for this folly.
The molecular biologist is right about plant genetics. The biggest problems that I have observed, as a midwestern farmer's daughter, is occasional susceptability to blight, and, in the case of wheat, a progressive loss of gluten in the kernal over time.