Ethanol Not Causing Cropland Expansion

Here’s a reality check regarding all those extreme predictions that farmers would soon be tearing up grasslands, pastures and forests in order to plant more corn for ethanol production - according to a new in depth USDA analysis of U.S.land use patterns the total cropland in the U.S.actually dropped by thirty-four million acres between 2002 and 2008. The USDA reports that as the lowest level of cropland since it started collecting such data back in 1945. In addition, the USDA reports a major increase in grassland, rangeland, and forests during that time period. So just what is gobbling up land left and right? Well, that would be urban sprawl. Land in urban areas has increased seventeen percent since 1990. President of the Renewable Fuels Association, Bob Dinneen, hopes the USDA reports will make legislators who have strongly criticized and penalized crop based biofuels for indirect land use sit up and take notice of the real culprit in land conversion. As Dinneen states, “Our renewable energy policies and regulatiions should be based on what is actually happening on the ground - not on hypothetical results from black box economic models.”