May 10, 2010
(Cattle-Network) NCGA: Report Looks At Folly of Tracking International Indirect Land Use Change
A two-part report on corn, ethanol and land use change, prepared for the National Corn Growers Association, provides an in-depth look at improvements in corn and ethanol production efficiency, the worldwide availability of agricultural acreage and the difficulty in estimating indirect land use change at the global scale.
“This project was an important one for us because the myth of international indirect land use change is one that won’t go away,” said NCGA President Darrin Ihnen. “We’re producing more corn per acre and more ethanol per bushel than ever before, while exceeding all other needs as well. At the same time, charges of global land use change because of U.S. ethanol production are not science-based.”
To validate the land use hypothesis, a massive number of agricultural acres should have been moved to corn production for fuel, the report states. As has been seen, however, this has not occurred. While there was a noticeable increase in acres in 2007, in 2008 and 2009, acres of corn trended towards a more historical level – even as ethanol demand has increased.
Further, the growing technological ....
