Iowa’s crops should be for food, not fuel

Our state and federal leaders need to rethink their relentless promotion of ethanol. Most recently, President Joe Biden succumbed to pleas from areas with strong ethanol industries, and temporarily lifted the EPA rule restricting the selling of E15 during the summer, all in hopes of decreasing the cost of gasoline at the pump. At this time, when the Russian invasion of Ukraine is leading to food shortages, the prioritization of corn-based ethanol is alarming. The drilling and supply of oil can be, and will be, increased when prices reach the level to make it profitable for companies and countries to increase output. On the other hand, the supply of food is much more finite, if enough food is not planted this spring, it will result in a year of shortages, no matter how high the prices of grain go. Wheat shortages are already set in motion due to the war in Ukraine. These shortages will only lead to more instability throughout the world.

Our leaders need to stop adding to the false need and false solutions that have been peddled to Iowans, concerning corn ethanol. A 2019 USDA study reported that ethanol produces 39 percent less greenhouse gases than produced from gasoline. A recent study indicates that ethanol does not produce any less greenhouse gases than gasoline production, when land use changes are included in the calculations. Corn ethanol is responsible for greenhouse gases, in no small part because of the petroleum needed for the production of fertilizers and the tillage practices used to produce corn. Should we really be using the short supply of fertilizer to grow fuel when it is needed to grow food?

Not only is the promotion of corn ethanol not a solution for climate change and exasperating food shortages, but it decreases our quality of life in Iowa. The continual growing of corn, fence row to fence row, increases pollution in our water and depletes the topsoil. Agricultural practices need to incorporate crop rotation and diversification, in order to reduce the amount of pesticides and fertilizers needed. Practices to reduce wind erosion and runoff are well known, but not well adopted, even though the Iowa Farm Bureau continually touts otherwise. Federal farm programs are full of subsidies and bailouts with little regard to the sustainability practices used. The federal government needs to disincentivize agricultural practices that erode the soil, pollute our waterways, and promote the continuous growing of corn year after year.

Promotion of corn-based ethanol is not the solution. Our leaders need to stop capitulating to the self-serving message continually spouted by corporate agriculture. This has become such entrenched dogma, that a recent poll indicates 85 percent of Iowans believe ethanol is important to the state’s economic well-being. In reality, Iowa’s future depends on a change in direction. Now is the time to double down on real solutions like increasing fuel efficiency and electric vehicles. Land use, the sun, and wind in Iowa are a big part of the solutions for our future, let’s start using them to our benefit rather than our demise.

Kim Hagemann is from Polk City, and has over 30 years of experience in research and intellectual property management in the agriculture Industry.