[Land-speed] Corn and Ethanol, not LSR

[Jonathan]

We could grow food for vehicles, but not without changing a couple laws.

Hemp people!

Every single product produced with petroleum (especially plastics!!!!)
could be produced with hemp. The seeds have higher protien than any
other plant (except soy) and fiber could be used to make everything
from fabric, ropes and linens to fiberglass. The cellulose material
can be used to make paper, and building materials (think fiberboard,
just stronger and lighter). Not to mention hemp seed oil for
lubrication (the Navy's preferred lubricant!) and or course fuel.
(hempseed oil used to be used in lanterns instead of kerosene)

It's a shame the fed has their head up Bush's ass. Good thing
California is finally jumping on the bandwagon and making an attempt
to legalize the farming of Industrial Hemp. Going to make me a lot of
money when they do. (do you know how many TONS of hemp are IMPORTED
into the US every year?!?! U.S. retailers import 1.9+ million pounds
of hemp fiber and 450,000+ pounds of hemp seeds from Canada because of
bans on growing hemp in the United States)

Oh, yea, and the hemp plant is a weed, so it needs no fertilizers, no
pesticides, and when it's harvested, it's just clearcut, leaving a
massive root system to be reclaimed by the earth for the next years
crop... this leaves the soil healthier each year (quite the opposite
of corn) so crop rotation wouldn't even be needed.

Course, this would solve too many issues that our nation faces all at
once, so the restrictive government that's slowly taken over couldn't
possibly allow that!

~Jon

On 7/15/07, Bobbyhotrods at comcast.net <Bobbyhotrods at comcast.net> wrote:
> 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



-- 
~Jon