I’ve often said that, as a nation, we can waste renewable resources just as quickly as non-renewable ones. Unless we can throttle back on consumption, the potential contribution of renewable resources to our economy may be curbed in the long run.

If trees are cleared for energy crops, if it takes more energy to grow and process a crop into fuel than the power it delivers, if greater amounts of water, fertilizers and crop protection chemicals become necessary to maintain crop growth, and if productivity stagnates –– well, perhaps we need to discuss the energy-in/energy-out ratios more and what impact these imbalances (or balances) really have on our soils.

Sustainability must remain a foundation in the future development and deployment of biofuels (and, for the sake of space and time, you can use your own definition of “sustainability” here).

Even as an agricultural and natural resource writer and photographer, I remain uneasy as to how swiftly we sometimes embrace “biofuels” in any form without more fully discussing the impacts on our soils and forests. In short, I would have to ask: “Instead of drilling the earth for oil, will we, in turn, be mining our soils for biofuels?”

I’ve been to numerous national and state level renewable energy conferences, and this type of discussion never seems to get “front and center” treatment that I believe it really deserves.

This topic was partly brought into focus when I read an article in the March/April 2009 issue of Mother Jones entitled: Ethanol’s African Land Grab | Mozambique has survived colonialism and civil war. But can it survive the ethanol industry?

The article was written by Adam Welz and can be read online. (What do you think?) Read more . . .

The research is being conducted at the Muscatine Island Research and Demonstration Farm in Fruitland and the Southeast Research and Demonstration Farm, which is located near Crawfordsville.

“Our work is important because it will provide estimates of potential sugar beet yield so work can begin on developing realistic energy budgets and profitability of using sugar beets as a biofuel,” said Vince Lawson, superintendent of the Muscatine Island research farm. Read more . . .