Corn plastic and ethanol
I heard a story on NPR this morning about the record-setting crop of corn being harvested this year based on the boom in the ethanol industry.
I have my doubts that replacing our bad consumption habits based on petroleum with bad habits based on another raw material like corn will work out in the long run. For instance, how much energy goes into producing ethanol in the first place? What is the impact of farmers planting lots of land with corn instead of other crops? Of course, most of the corn grown for fuel is likely Roundup resistant Genetically Modified corn. What is going to happen to the corn we each as the GM corn invades the food supply?
The NPR story reminded me of an article on corn plastic that can replace some lower-temperature applications of petroleum plastic and is supposed to be “compostable”. Not quite.
