[Land-speed] Corn and Ethanol, not LSR

[Bobbyhotrods at comcast.net]

Yeah, corn is grown as a commodity and price supported by the government. They have to support it because the farmers aren't making money growing it. Thanks to petroleum based fertilizers (nitrogen) and high yield hybrid seed, farmers have ceased rotating crops, with the exception of some soybean.
This is why Iowa is brown, except when the corn's growing.
There's plenty of nitrogen runoff, too, which is why the Gulf is dead.
Their farming takes place only a few weeks a year, when they aren't doing their other job.
We think of farming corn as a renewable resource, but the way we do it isn't sustainable, and it's hugely petroleum based.
BTW, there are some few hip folks out there who call themselves Grass Farmers (no, not that, Otto). They'd argue the best solar energy use is natural grasslands, and careful pasturing of different animals in a scheduled procession via mobile pens produces high food yields naturally, while the grass grows like hell.
We cannot grow fuel for vehicles, only people. My 2 cents. BJ