Jones Beene writes: >The DOE and USDA did a study in last year known as the "Billion >Ton Study," which indicates that there is enough underutilized >agricultural and forestland resources in the USA . . .
Let us translate that into real word facts, shall we? Do you know what "utilized" modern U.S. agricultural land is, and what it looks like, and much how fertilizer, insecticide and water it takes? We have destroyed half of the topsoil in North America in 100 years, and we are now wrecking the water table in most of the lower 48, and virtually all of the Great Plains states. "Utilizing" in this context means "raping the land" -- wiping out species wholesale and converting the most verdant and beautiful land on earth into a desert wasteland. That's what you will do if you continue with today's mechanized agriculture, which is really nothing more than a war against nature. You want to convert the remaining topsoil into a few decades more fuel for your SUVs, while you convert the U.S. into something that looks like Iraq (which was, once, the most verdant land on earth). Then what? to sustainably >harvest 1.3 billion tons of biomass annually without impacting >food supplies. This does not count ocean resources for algae which >are potential greater than 2 billion tons from the Gulf of Mexico >alone. Oh great. So we are going to spread havoc & poison while we wipe out biodiversity in the oceans as well? Brilliant. >It would be helpful if commentators on this thread would actually >read what the experts are saying TODAY - instead of relying on >erroneous outdated material . . . It would be even more helpful if commentators would consider some very basic physics and biology, and do some grade-school arithmetic. Also, it would help if you could relate to actual experience in the real world with things like firewood and growing crops. >The goal of hirty percent of oil being replaced by biofuel by 2020 >or earlier is fine . . . Sure, if we can just learn to stop eating food, or if we don't mind starving a few million people in other countries while we finish destroying the ecology and land in the U.S. - Jed
