Here are two articles I've prepared during the past month. The first discusses the rapid conversion of grasslands and wetlands to cropland (mainly for corn), and the impact this could have on migratory birds. The second discusses the increase in corn-derived ethanol production and how this could impact water supply and quality.
=============================================================
A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service goal to acquire and
protect an additional 12 million acres of grassland
and wetland habitat for migratory birds is unlikely to
be achieved, reports the U.S. Government
Accountability Office (GAO).
At its current pace, it would take the Service 150
years and $2.6 billion to reach its goal. However, the
rapid conversion of wetlands and grasslands to
cropland, driven by rising demand for corn and other
commodities used to produce renewable fuels like
ethanol, has left the Service with only 50 years
before remaining acreage is converted to cropland,
reports GAO.
The 64 million acre Prairie Pothole region, which
includes parts of Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas and
Montana, provides a breeding, nesting and feeding
ground for over 300 migratory bird species. The
wetlands and grasslands are vital to millions of ducks
that breed and nest in the region. Draining of
wetlands in this region threatens species such as the
endangered piping plover and whooping crane.
Since 1959, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has
acquired and permanently protected about 3 million
acres of wetland and grassland habitat in the Prairie
Pothole Region. But with only $17 million available
each year for land acquisitions, enough to acquire
79,000 wetland and grassland acres a year, the Service
is severely hampered by limited resources.
Because of demand for ethanol and new cropping
technologies that can convert native grassland -
previously unsuitable for agriculture - to land
capable of growing corn and soybeans, the lands of the
Prairie Pothole region are undergoing a
transformation. Market forces are creating a scenario
where corn is king. Corn prices increased from $2.50
per bushel in September 2006 to $4.16 per bushel in
January 2007, reports the Congressional Research
Service. In June 2007, The Department of Agriculture's
Economic Research Service reported that corn growers
planted 92.9 million acres of corn in 2007, a 19
percent increase over 2006 and the highest acreage
since 1944. There has been a rush to turn even
marginal croplands, previously unsuitable for
agriculture, into land growing corn.
"You can buy land for $200-300 an acre that is native
grass, never broken up. But if you break it up
(bulldoze or plow), you can sell it for $700-800 an
acre," says Bart James, governmental affairs
representative for Ducks Unlimited, a national
conservation organization. "Whether it ever makes a
crop or not, you've just increased the value."
With the combination of soaring land values, crop
prices and demand for ethanol, hundreds of thousands
of acres of grasslands are now being plowed under and
converted to cropland. And the rush to embrace
ethanol has raised many serious environmental issues.
"The 800 pound gorilla in the corner, that no one is
willing to talk about with corn or soybean-based ethanol, is water use and
soil erosion," says Dr. Michael Osterholm, a professor
in the School of Public Health at the University of
Minnesota. "Anybody on the environmental side would
have concerns over ducks, protection of potholes. But
those are not even in the top order of concerns."
A report released Oct. 10 by the National Academy of
Sciences' National Research Council notes that water
supply problems could develop if ethanol
production continues to rise and the effect on water
quality could be significant. Increased production
could mean that more fertilizers and pesticides run
into rivers and oceans.
Osterholm worries that there has not been a true
cost-benefit analysis in looking at ethanol as an
alternative fuel. "Very few people realize how
marginal that energy output is once you factor in all
the energy required to make ethanol," says Osterholm,
alluding to the energy needed to run field irrigation
pumps and the fertilizer - made with natural gas -
used in corn fields. "I have no doubt that if we added
up all the environmental costs of corn or soybean-based ethanol versus
positive impacts, it would be an environmentally
unfriendly source of energy."
Some scientists believe that energy and conservation
needs could be addressed at the same time. A number of
ecologists argue that prairie grasses - rather than
corn - can be used as a biofuel source, while at the
same time allowing migratory birds and other wildlife
to thrive. "They can co-exist," says Dr. Joseph
Fargione, Regional Science Director for the Central
U.S. Region of the Nature Conservancy, a conservation
group. "You're not going to harvest (the grasses) till
September at the earliest. You're not at risk of
conflicting with the nesting season. The only risk is
in conflicting with overwintering birds."
In the meantime, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
will have to stem the tide of habitat destruction with
a larger budget for land acquisition. GAO has
recommended raising the cost of the federal Duck
Stamp, which funds land acquisition for the Service,
or getting more money from the Land and Water
Conservation Fund, which includes oil and gas lease revenues.
======================================
Water supplies could be depleted and further polluted
if the growth in corn-based ethanol production
continues, says a new report from the National
Research Council (NRC), an arm of the National Academy
of Sciences.
High oil prices and a federal subsidy policy, under
which oil refineries receive a 51 cent credit for
every gallon of ethanol they blend with gasoline, have
led to a dramatic expansion in corn-based ethanol
production. In his State of the Union Address,
President Bush called for the production of 35 billion
gallons of ethanol by 2017, which would represent
about 15 percent of U.S. liquid transportation fuel.
Last year, the US only produced about 6 billion
gallons of ethanol, 4 percent of its fuel.
The market is already responding; U.S. farmers planted
92.9 million acres of corn in 2007, a 19 percent
annual increase. With the increased growing of corn,
particularly in dry areas that require irrigation,
water resources will become a major concern, says the
NRC report.
While some of the water needed to grow crops will
arrive via rainfall, the rest will come from
groundwater and surface water irrigation. The National
Research Council notes that irrigation represents the
majority of the nation’s consumptive water use – water
lost through evaporation and plant leaves that is not
available for reuse. As the government projects that
36 states will face water shortages within the next
five years, there is a question as to whether precious
water supplies can be devoted to growing more corn.
“In Nebraska and Oklahoma, they irrigate the corn crop
– that’s a huge demand on an already overdrawn
(Ogallala) aquifer,” said Jerald L. Schnoor, professor
of environmental engineering and co-director of the
Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research
at the University of Iowa. “2,000 gallons of water are
required for every bushel of corn.”
Since biorefineries require water to convert biomass
to fuel, their operation may be impacted by dwindling
water supplies. While the amount of water they use is
modest compared to that applied to crops, there have
already been cases where biorefineries have not been
built in Iowa and Minnesota “because the confined
aquifers were already overexploited,” said Schnoor,
who served as chairman of the NRC panel issuing the
report.
While water supply problems abound, there are also
water quality concerns as ethanol production
increases. Increased fertilizer and pesticide use on
corn fields could impact the quality of groundwater,
rivers, and coastal and offshore waters. The use of
fertilizer can result in excess nutrients – such as
nitrogen and phosphorus – flowing into waterways via
surface runoffs and infiltration of groundwater. This
nutrient pollution poses a significant threat to water
quality. Excess nitrogen in the Mississippi River
system has filtered down to the Gulf of Mexico and
created a “dead zone” where fish cannot survive
because the water is oxygen-depleted.
“Nitrogen is a major limiting nutrient for algae and
leads to blooms in algae. The algae then die, bacteria
decompose them, and that uses so much oxygen in the
water,” said David Tilman, a University of Minnesota
ecology professor and member of the NRC panel. “That
(Gulf of Mexico) dead zone has become larger and
larger … and will become larger more quickly with the
big increase in corn being grown.”
Nitrogen also threatens the aquifers in areas right
around farmland, contaminating the water that farmers
themselves drink. The Environmental Protection Agency
has tested wells around farming communities and the
levels of nitrate and nitrite – common forms of
nitrogen in water - have frequently exceeded maximum
contaminant levels.
There is hope that problems of water supply and
quality can be averted by utilizing cellulosic
feedstocks to produce ethanol, rather than corn.
Cellulosic feedstocks – which include native grasses
like switchgrass, wood and wood residues, and crop
residues such as corn stover and wheat straw – have a
lower expected impact on water quality and supply,
says the NRC report. However, the report concedes that
there are “many uncertainties regarding the
large-scale production of these crops” and a
technological breakthrough is needed to make
cellulosic ethanol a reality.
“The enzymes still haven’t been perfected for
fermentation of cellulosic crops. There’s a problem
with separating and transforming cellulose and
hemicellulose and lignin into products that can be
turned into starch by microbial enzymes or other
enzymes,” said Schnoor. “The technology isn’t really
available yet. Everyone is thinking and hoping that
cellulosic ethanol will be more environmentally
friendly, but we don’t have any full scale commercial
examples to prove that.”
=============================================================
A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service goal to acquire and
protect an additional 12 million acres of grassland
and wetland habitat for migratory birds is unlikely to
be achieved, reports the U.S. Government
Accountability Office (GAO).
At its current pace, it would take the Service 150
years and $2.6 billion to reach its goal. However, the
rapid conversion of wetlands and grasslands to
cropland, driven by rising demand for corn and other
commodities used to produce renewable fuels like
ethanol, has left the Service with only 50 years
before remaining acreage is converted to cropland,
reports GAO.
The 64 million acre Prairie Pothole region, which
includes parts of Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas and
Montana, provides a breeding, nesting and feeding
ground for over 300 migratory bird species. The
wetlands and grasslands are vital to millions of ducks
that breed and nest in the region. Draining of
wetlands in this region threatens species such as the
endangered piping plover and whooping crane.
Since 1959, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has
acquired and permanently protected about 3 million
acres of wetland and grassland habitat in the Prairie
Pothole Region. But with only $17 million available
each year for land acquisitions, enough to acquire
79,000 wetland and grassland acres a year, the Service
is severely hampered by limited resources.
Because of demand for ethanol and new cropping
technologies that can convert native grassland -
previously unsuitable for agriculture - to land
capable of growing corn and soybeans, the lands of the
Prairie Pothole region are undergoing a
transformation. Market forces are creating a scenario
where corn is king. Corn prices increased from $2.50
per bushel in September 2006 to $4.16 per bushel in
January 2007, reports the Congressional Research
Service. In June 2007, The Department of Agriculture's
Economic Research Service reported that corn growers
planted 92.9 million acres of corn in 2007, a 19
percent increase over 2006 and the highest acreage
since 1944. There has been a rush to turn even
marginal croplands, previously unsuitable for
agriculture, into land growing corn.
"You can buy land for $200-300 an acre that is native
grass, never broken up. But if you break it up
(bulldoze or plow), you can sell it for $700-800 an
acre," says Bart James, governmental affairs
representative for Ducks Unlimited, a national
conservation organization. "Whether it ever makes a
crop or not, you've just increased the value."
With the combination of soaring land values, crop
prices and demand for ethanol, hundreds of thousands
of acres of grasslands are now being plowed under and
converted to cropland. And the rush to embrace
ethanol has raised many serious environmental issues.
"The 800 pound gorilla in the corner, that no one is
willing to talk about with corn or soybean-based ethanol, is water use and
soil erosion," says Dr. Michael Osterholm, a professor
in the School of Public Health at the University of
Minnesota. "Anybody on the environmental side would
have concerns over ducks, protection of potholes. But
those are not even in the top order of concerns."
A report released Oct. 10 by the National Academy of
Sciences' National Research Council notes that water
supply problems could develop if ethanol
production continues to rise and the effect on water
quality could be significant. Increased production
could mean that more fertilizers and pesticides run
into rivers and oceans.
Osterholm worries that there has not been a true
cost-benefit analysis in looking at ethanol as an
alternative fuel. "Very few people realize how
marginal that energy output is once you factor in all
the energy required to make ethanol," says Osterholm,
alluding to the energy needed to run field irrigation
pumps and the fertilizer - made with natural gas -
used in corn fields. "I have no doubt that if we added
up all the environmental costs of corn or soybean-based ethanol versus
positive impacts, it would be an environmentally
unfriendly source of energy."
Some scientists believe that energy and conservation
needs could be addressed at the same time. A number of
ecologists argue that prairie grasses - rather than
corn - can be used as a biofuel source, while at the
same time allowing migratory birds and other wildlife
to thrive. "They can co-exist," says Dr. Joseph
Fargione, Regional Science Director for the Central
U.S. Region of the Nature Conservancy, a conservation
group. "You're not going to harvest (the grasses) till
September at the earliest. You're not at risk of
conflicting with the nesting season. The only risk is
in conflicting with overwintering birds."
In the meantime, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
will have to stem the tide of habitat destruction with
a larger budget for land acquisition. GAO has
recommended raising the cost of the federal Duck
Stamp, which funds land acquisition for the Service,
or getting more money from the Land and Water
Conservation Fund, which includes oil and gas lease revenues.
======================================
Water supplies could be depleted and further polluted
if the growth in corn-based ethanol production
continues, says a new report from the National
Research Council (NRC), an arm of the National Academy
of Sciences.
High oil prices and a federal subsidy policy, under
which oil refineries receive a 51 cent credit for
every gallon of ethanol they blend with gasoline, have
led to a dramatic expansion in corn-based ethanol
production. In his State of the Union Address,
President Bush called for the production of 35 billion
gallons of ethanol by 2017, which would represent
about 15 percent of U.S. liquid transportation fuel.
Last year, the US only produced about 6 billion
gallons of ethanol, 4 percent of its fuel.
The market is already responding; U.S. farmers planted
92.9 million acres of corn in 2007, a 19 percent
annual increase. With the increased growing of corn,
particularly in dry areas that require irrigation,
water resources will become a major concern, says the
NRC report.
While some of the water needed to grow crops will
arrive via rainfall, the rest will come from
groundwater and surface water irrigation. The National
Research Council notes that irrigation represents the
majority of the nation’s consumptive water use – water
lost through evaporation and plant leaves that is not
available for reuse. As the government projects that
36 states will face water shortages within the next
five years, there is a question as to whether precious
water supplies can be devoted to growing more corn.
“In Nebraska and Oklahoma, they irrigate the corn crop
– that’s a huge demand on an already overdrawn
(Ogallala) aquifer,” said Jerald L. Schnoor, professor
of environmental engineering and co-director of the
Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research
at the University of Iowa. “2,000 gallons of water are
required for every bushel of corn.”
Since biorefineries require water to convert biomass
to fuel, their operation may be impacted by dwindling
water supplies. While the amount of water they use is
modest compared to that applied to crops, there have
already been cases where biorefineries have not been
built in Iowa and Minnesota “because the confined
aquifers were already overexploited,” said Schnoor,
who served as chairman of the NRC panel issuing the
report.
While water supply problems abound, there are also
water quality concerns as ethanol production
increases. Increased fertilizer and pesticide use on
corn fields could impact the quality of groundwater,
rivers, and coastal and offshore waters. The use of
fertilizer can result in excess nutrients – such as
nitrogen and phosphorus – flowing into waterways via
surface runoffs and infiltration of groundwater. This
nutrient pollution poses a significant threat to water
quality. Excess nitrogen in the Mississippi River
system has filtered down to the Gulf of Mexico and
created a “dead zone” where fish cannot survive
because the water is oxygen-depleted.
“Nitrogen is a major limiting nutrient for algae and
leads to blooms in algae. The algae then die, bacteria
decompose them, and that uses so much oxygen in the
water,” said David Tilman, a University of Minnesota
ecology professor and member of the NRC panel. “That
(Gulf of Mexico) dead zone has become larger and
larger … and will become larger more quickly with the
big increase in corn being grown.”
Nitrogen also threatens the aquifers in areas right
around farmland, contaminating the water that farmers
themselves drink. The Environmental Protection Agency
has tested wells around farming communities and the
levels of nitrate and nitrite – common forms of
nitrogen in water - have frequently exceeded maximum
contaminant levels.
There is hope that problems of water supply and
quality can be averted by utilizing cellulosic
feedstocks to produce ethanol, rather than corn.
Cellulosic feedstocks – which include native grasses
like switchgrass, wood and wood residues, and crop
residues such as corn stover and wheat straw – have a
lower expected impact on water quality and supply,
says the NRC report. However, the report concedes that
there are “many uncertainties regarding the
large-scale production of these crops” and a
technological breakthrough is needed to make
cellulosic ethanol a reality.
“The enzymes still haven’t been perfected for
fermentation of cellulosic crops. There’s a problem
with separating and transforming cellulose and
hemicellulose and lignin into products that can be
turned into starch by microbial enzymes or other
enzymes,” said Schnoor. “The technology isn’t really
available yet. Everyone is thinking and hoping that
cellulosic ethanol will be more environmentally
friendly, but we don’t have any full scale commercial
examples to prove that.”
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