Radio Iowa, IA
05-04-07
AG expert says corn industry will settle down
By Stella Shaffer
While biologists say a lot of other plant material from wild grass to weeds could
be used to brew ethanol, the industry so far is set up around corn. Dennis
Keeney, a senior fellow at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, says he
doesn't think the explosion of corn production will continue indefinitely.
He sees the corn industry "settling down" to a steady production of ten to fifteenBillion gallons of ethanol a year. It's a good fuel for increasing the octane rating of
fuel, he says, and while corn will probably always be used to make ethanol he
sees a future for other cellulosic sources of ethanol that can be made from "longlasting plants" that would help control erosion.
"In the end...I think we cannot 'grow ourselves out' of this problem," Keeney says.
He says the trouble is with our habits of consumption and they cannot be
supported in our current system. "The world is not sustainable as it's going right
now." Keeney says growing corn to try and meet the nation's energy needs will
have an impact on everything from the size of farms to water supplies and biodiversity.
"The concern is building and it's not just me," Keeney says. "It's a widespread
concern." He says some countries have considered a moratorium on building
new ethanol plants until the market settles down, though he says it hasn't
happened in the United States and probably won't.
An international expert in sustainable farming and pioneering environmental
scientist in water quality, Keeney is former director of Iowa State University's
Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. Keeney spoke at the University of
Iowa today.