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254 comments on Due Diligence: A reader's response to Khosla

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Darcy Kensington on August 15, 2006 - 2:32pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
You mention corn as America's most productive crop.

I think it's important to note that the level of productivity we have achieved is sutained by a massive use of fossil fuel and ff products for fertilization, pest control and planting/harvesting.

I have seen figures suggesting that this energy input at the front end is tripling the productivity of the modern American acre.  If we lose the cheap oil, what is the next best source of fertilizer and how intensively can we farm using it?

If we are trying to replace gasoline, then the corn/biomass production is going to be gas-free or limited.

I am willing to bet that all current production estimates are including all of the productivity advantages that cheap oil has bestowed on us.

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Engineer-Poet on August 15, 2006 - 9:09pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Funny you should ask.  I wrote an essay on nitrate production from corn stover last November.  I concluded that the Rentech plant under construction could take corn stover (or charcoal derived from it) and produce more than enough nitrogen to fertilize the corn, plus several times the diesel required to cultivate it.

The "balance of system" probably wouldn't be doing quite so well, though.

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