Corn and soy fields are rapidly swallowing up grassland in the western corn belt.
In a
post last year, I argued that to get ready for climate change, we should push Midwestern farmers to switch a chunk of their corn land into pasture for cows. The idea came from a
paper by University of Tennessee and Bard College researchers, who calculated that such a move could suck up massive amounts of carbon in soil - enough to reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture by 36 percent. In addition to the CO
2 reductions, you'd also get a bunch of high-quality, grass-fed beef (which has a significantly
healthier fat profile than the corn-finished stuff).
Turns out, farmers in the Midwest are doing just the opposite. Inspired by high crop prices driven up by the federal corn-ethanol program - as well as by federally subsidized crop insurance that mitigates their risk - farmers are expanding the vast carpet of corn and soy that covers the Midwest rather than retracting it. That's the message of a
new paper (PDF) by South Dakota State University researchers published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
Comment: The article above is a clear example of what 'corporate agriculture' has done to the US and the world as a whole. To understand more about the issues surrounding 'industrial corporate agriculture' read the following:
The Vegetarian Myth Lierre Keith on 'The Vegetarian Myth - Food, Justice and Sustainability'