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[LeoLeonardoIII]

I'd be interested in seeing the energy input per ton of corn harvested, using humans and animals on one side and one human on a huge machine on the other. Again, considering all the inputs and outputs such as the animals creating fertilizer, the energy used to produce the machine and all its spare parts over the years, the impact of its pollution, the detriments of monocropping which must be done with a huge machine but can be avoided with animal power, etc.

[Sheb]

I do have something like that in a book at my dad's. Anyway, you'd have to compare biofuel for the tractor with feeding your horse.

[WillowLuman]

And once again, using corn for biofuel is just dumb. The far more efficient use of corn is for feeding humans and animals, not machines. Other plants provide much better biofuel yields.

[Neonivek]

And once again, using corn for biofuel is just dumb. The far more efficient use of corn is for feeding humans and animals, not machines. Other plants provide much better biofuel yields.

We could just use the corn we were going to throw away anyway.

[Playergamer]

And once again, using corn for biofuel is just dumb. The far more efficient use of corn is for feeding humans and animals, not machines. Other plants provide much better biofuel yields.

We could just use the corn we were going to throw away anyway.

The thing is, we don't. We grow hundreds of acres of corn just for biofuels.

[Sheb]

Yeah, we're not actually throwing corn away. We're wasting a lot of it, but that's stuff like corn rotting and stuff, not being thrown away.

[kaijyuu]

My understanding is that we use corn due to having a lot of corn farmers. You can't ask them to immediately switch over to another crop; agriculture doesn't work that way.

Please do not quote this and say "well that's not a good reason to use corn for biofuels!" because the point of this post was not to promote that at all. Thank you.

[Sheb]

We use corn because the corn lobby is powerful and the process to turn it into ethanol is cheap and well-understood.

[LeoLeonardoIII]

Also, we use certain crops like corn and soybeans because they can be dried and stored, meaning they represent a method of storing agricultural surplus. That's not the only reason, but I believe that's one of the important ones.