Plowing Minnesota's Prairie Is Increasing Carbon in the Atmosphere

by Josephine Marcotty (Star Tribune) Newly plowed land in Minnesota released 1.6 million metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere each year between 2008 and 2012, a consequence of high corn prices and the ethanol mandate.

Only the Dakotas, Texas and Missouri released more carbon buried in soil by converting natural landscapes to row crops, according to an analysis by researchers at the University of Wisconsin, presented this week at a scientific and conservation conference on grasslands.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin combined high-resolution satellite imagery and annual federal land use data with estimates of carbon lost when soil and native plants were plowed up across the United States. They found that since the 2007 increase in national biofuel goals, more than 7 million acres of habitat were plowed under to plant corn and soybeans.

Geoff Cooper, executive vice president of the national Renewable Fuels Association, said other analyses and studies have shown the increase in corn production has come from more productivity per acre, not more land converted to row crops.

“The authors continue to abuse and misrepresent unreliable satellite data, and they continue to present highly uncertain modeling results as if they were the gospel truth,” he said in an e-mailed statement. He cited recent estimates by the Environmental Protection Agency, which found that while crop production is up 18 percent since 2000, farm acres are unchanged.

“Since 2008 there has been virtually no change in total land devoted to field crops in the United States,” said Bruce Babcock, a retired professor of agriculture at Iowa State University. “But clearly there has been … more acreage in the Great Plains.”

The mandate has become a target for conservation groups like the National Wildlife Federation, which provided some funding for the University of Wisconsin study, but which had no hand in the work or its conclusions, the authors said. It was presented at the Grasslands Conference in Fort Worth, Texas, which was sponsored by the wildlife group. READ MORE

Excerpt from Great Lakes Now: National Wildlife Federation spokesperson Jordan Lubetkin told Great Lakes Now that the Wisconsin study had not been peer-reviewed but eventually would be.

The Ohio Farm Bureau has maintained that the state had more acres of corn planted prior to the mandate than it currently does. The Ohio and Minnesota Farm Bureaus both support the mandate.

Pointing to U.S. Department of Agriculture data, the National Wildlife Federation told Great Lakes Now that there has been a small increase in corn production in Ohio.

The federation is asking Congress to reform the ethanol mandate by reducing its volume and by enforcing existing laws that prevent conversion of habitat into corn production.

The group recently sent 20,000 comments to legislators urging a reform of the ethanol mandate and says there is bi-partisan interest in updating the law, but no legislation has been introduced. READ MORE

Excerpt from Wisconsin State Journal: Yet data from the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Agriculture clearly show that U.S. farmers are growing more food and fuel on less landthan previous decades. In fact, demand for renewable fuel has accelerated agricultural innovation, yielding lower food prices.

More importantly, the latest USDA report shows that ethanol reduces carbon emissions by 43 percent compared to gasoline -- even including land use change assumptions. In truth, biofuels are one of the most powerful tools available to protect our climate, our energy security and rural jobs.

As it turns out, the “new” study isn’t new at all. Sponsors at the National Wildlife Federation circulated the same false conclusions and flawed data in 2015. And NWF is a voice for the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers Association’s anti-biofuel campaign. That’s ExxonMobil, Marathon and other oil giants. READ MORE