Well, despite what 'we all know', viz the growing of crops in a way that doesn't destroy the earth, but rather sustains, even improves the fertility of the soil, and all that.
Contemporary 'agribusiness' style agriculture being what it is, I'm still completely unclear on the EROEI of fuel-crops. Some folks I know grew 7 acres of sunflower last year, and had a marvelous harvest. They managed to scrape together with some neighbors enough money to buy a 40 yr/o small (by modern standards) harvester and a similar vintage oil press. I don't know the numbers, but they were quite pleased with yields. This spring, the sunflowers are going into a different field, according to their plan for soil management and all that. I'm unclear on their science, but I'll know more as I become more familiar with their operation in the coming years. They are pretty sharp folks. The number folks keep kicking around is by modern agricultural practices it takes 10 calories of energy to produce 1 calorie of fuel(food). I often get lost and bogged down in the vast maze of details surrounding all this. Anyone help? _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
