A growing body of research on issues like international indirect land use change and carbon neutrality points to an improving environmental footprint for agriculture and its role in producing food, feed and fuel. During last week's Ag Energy Symposium, held in Washington, D.C. and sponsored by the National Corn Growers Association, Geoff Cooper of the Renewable Fuels Association said there is mounting evidence that ethanol is carbon neutral because plants are an integral part of a carbon recycling process.
Plants like corn take in carbon dioxide as it grows and releases it again when combusted as ethanol, only to be pulled from the atmosphere once again by the next generation of crops. NCGA Past President Fred Yoder, of Ohio, said he doesn't know a single farmer who doesn't want to grow crops better and more sustainably each year and that significant progress is being made.
NCGA president Bart Schott, a corn farmer from Kulm, North Dakota, said farmers are producing a growing volume of energy for this country in the form of corn-based ethanol and our role will continue to grow.
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