Concerns that environmentally sensitive lands will return to crop production owing to corn ethanol's voracious demand requirements were not allayed when a USDA Agricultural Research Service economist confirmed that even Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) lands are not sacred.
“There is discussion about taking land out of CRP land and putting a portion into corn, said Harold Collins, speaking earlier this week at the National Alliance of Independent Crop Consultants annual meeting in Seattle.
That is not to say that all 37 million of the CRP acres could be feedstock, as the USDA considers only about 7 million acres suitable for corn production.
“If we are to make ethanol from corn grain, we would need 68 million acres, which is 72% of the corn grown in the United States. I doubt very seriously that’s going to happen,” Collins said.
An additional 15 billion gallons of ethanol fuel would most likely come from the Great Cellulosic Covenant.
Even if tomorrow's vaunted technology were now upon us, switchgrass “is not for the grower who is faint of heart because it takes so long to get started,” Collins said.
Interestingly, Collins spoke of wide variation in expected yields from switchgrass, based on factors such as irrigation. Ironically, those states rich in corn would ironically come in last. Iowa got 6 tons of switchgrass per acre in the recent USDA study versus Washington's 13 tons.
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