We use the vast majority of our arable land to grow corn and soy commodity crops instead of actual food.
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They soon found that much of the rain forest that would have harbored coffee trees in the past had been clear cut to grow corn, bananas and grass for livestock.
But for the handful of companies that make corn syrup, and the significantly larger number of farmers who grow the corn that gets ground and processed into the stuff, the corn syrup hysteria is no laughing matter.
Eighty percent is the fossil energy we had to use to grow the corn and make that fuel.
Land used to grow biopharmed corn, for example, would have to lie fallow for the following season, a requirement that would promote soil erosion and whose expense would discourage many farmers from biopharming.
About 250km (150 miles) to the north, in neighbouring Shanxi province, in Pingdong, a much poorer village, 250 people live along battered dirt roads, and try to grow wheat, corn, soyabeans and winter melon on the dry, rocky mountain land.
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Corn does not grow easily in the U.S., so it requires a lot of energy to produce.
Hardest hit were villages further up the valleys, where farmers grow rice, vegetables and corn on terraced plots.
Correspondents say the hill villages, where farmers grow rice, vegetables and corn on terraced plots, were hit the hardest.
Correspondents say the hill villages, where farmers grow rice, vegetables and corn on terraced plots, were hit the hardest by the earthquake.
But what if some easier-to-grow crop were substituted for corn?
The fact that corn-ethanol production has continued to grow, despite the failure of a number of firms in late 2008 and early 2009, points to the efficacy of the various protections and subsidies it enjoys (falling maize prices helped too), though it says nothing about their efficiency or wisdom.
Gore's "mistake" was a whopper: Corn is a poor substrate for ethanol production because it takes a lot of conventional fossil energy to grow and ferment it, and its diversion to ethanol production creates a conflict between two of our most fundamental needs--food and energy.
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