May 19, 2010
NCGA: Time to throw out land use change theory
Published in Brownfield Ag
The National Corn Growers Association says it’s time to throw out the controversial theory of indirect land use change.
NCGA president Darrin Ihnen calls it “junk science”, which he says “needs to go the way of the horse-drawn plow.
“They don’t give us credit for the fact that—this year—we’re going to produce 300-million more bushels than three years ago, on five-million fewer acres,” Ihnen says. “We just feel it’s flawed science—and the facts and the science continually prove that.”
Ihnen points to a recent study conducted by Purdue University. It found that the California Air Resources Board overestimated the greenhouse-gas impact of land use changes to corn ethanol by more than double.
“They don’t take into account the biotechnology and how our yields continue to improve,” he says. “They don’t take into account our agronomic practices where we’re producing more corn with less fertilizer.”
The California law ...
