Are you Fed Up with high fuel prices!

[Larry Gude]

If Obama...

The candidate who proposes that would never get elected.

...proposes it, I'll vote for him. I'll send him money. I'll take him golfing before you burn Sawgrass to ashes.

 

[Pete]

...called switch grass and I see no need to be burning up golf course's for fuel. You're over reacting.

I got my grasses mixed up.

 

[Pete]

...proposes it, I'll vote for him. I'll send him money. I'll take him golfing before you burn Sawgrass to ashes.

 

[Larry Gude]

You say...

I got my grasses mixed up.

...that now. Imagine if I hadn't corrected you and Tiger shows up next week and the T's and greens are gone and he's like "WTF?" and every ones like "Well, Pete said it would solve global warming..."

 

[clevalley]

Actually a weed called "switch grass" that will grow even in crappy soil nets more fuel than corn. Unfortunately it would take 120 million acres of sawgrass at the current yield to make a dent in gas imports. There are 30 million acres of land not farmed as part of the old government set aside program where they paid farmers not to farm. They hope to reduce the number of acres of switch grass needed to equal that 30 million acres of unused land through technological advances in the conversion process.

There are even more acres of abandoned farm land in addition to the 30 million acres of set aside land. The problem is we have lost farmers. Generations of farming has been broken and the next generation of farmers moved to the burbs and got jobs because farming was not profitable. All the old farming equipment was sold off or scrapped.

I believe we have the land, knowledge and wherewithal to grow biofuels the problem is who is going to do it? Is Bobby Joe going to quit his job as the Service manager at the Toyota dealership to go back to the family farm, buy new equipment, put in irrigation, and start growing switch grass?

The government subsidized them to get out of farming - maybe they are going to have to do a 180 to get them back; subsidize them to get back into it... :shrug:

 

[clevalley]

...that now. Imagine if I hadn't corrected you and Tiger shows up next week and the T's and greens are gone and he's like "WTF?" and every ones like "Well, Pete said it would solve global warming..."

I read "Tiger" as "Tigger" and thought "why would TWLs Wife be golfing??" That would be interesting...

 

[Larry Gude]

All...

The government subsidized them to get out of farming - maybe they are going to have to do a 180 to get them back; subsidize them to get back into it... :shrug:

...we have to do is ban imported oil from any dill weed nations and you won't have to do much more than get out of the way of people who want to get back in.

If we can just get a President with some vision who will keep giant corporations (and foreign nations) from swallowing everything up, the opportunities for an American renaissance for individuals is just sitting their to be taken hold of.

It is in our national interest to be energy independent. It just is.

 

[Pete]

The government subsidized them to get out of farming - maybe they are going to have to do a 180 to get them back; subsidize them to get back into it... :shrug:

Well that would make some sense but I hate to see the government dabbling in subsidies because they are retarded. This 180 you talk about has already been done before. The reason the government got into farm subsidies to begin with was the emotional attempt to preserve small inefficient family farms and despite the subsidies they failed anyway. What they created was a glut of dairy products (IE: Gubmint cheese) and grains. This drove the prices low enough no one in agriculture was making anything. So they then reversed course and did the set aside program by paying people not to farm and milk cows thus $4 a gallon for milk and 30 million acres of weeds.

Pretty soon cows were loaded up and shipped off to become Whoppers and Wendy's tripples, barns were abandoned to fall into ruin, equipment was sold off or left to have weeds grow up around them in barnyards and the sons and daughters who would have inherited the land and business went off to become UPS drivers and work in auto parts stores.

because of all this it will not be as easy to snap our fingers and yell "GO GROW SOMETHING!" and presto whammo we are churning out tons of switch grass. It will take years for the industry to get back to pre-1980's levels even if it can. A used 15 year old John Deere tractor costs about $50K and that will increase if everyone starts looking for them to return to farming.