This summer as I traveled I heard a number of opinions regarding the use of ethanol to fuel cars. Some are for it in order to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels. Some are for it to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. (Ethanol might burn with less pollution than gasoline.) Others are against it since there is a shortage of food in various parts of the world. The ethanol industry has driven the price of corn way up in the past year. In turn the price of other commodities like soybeans and rice have tracked the price of corn upwards. Thus all of us are paying more for food, which is not good for the poor people in the world, to understate the problem. Opponents of ethanol cry “Don’t burn our food!” (Maybe you think gasoline prices are the big problem now?)
Consider this however: In order to grow corn, soybeans, rice, or practically any plant, we generally use petroleum dependent methods. The fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides we use are petroleum-based. The tractors and combines that plant, cultivate, and harvest the crops run on diesel or gasoline. After harvesting, the processing and distribution of most crops also rely heavily on gasoline or diesel.
Increases in farm crop yields correspond very nicely with the introduction of petroleum based farming starting in the 1930’s. Some people call this “high input farming.” For example, corn yields in Indiana were about 20 to 40 bushels per acre from the late 1800’s through 1930 and the trend was pretty flat. Farmers now consider 140 bushels per acre a poor yield. Here in Sioux County, Iowa, 160 bushels per acre is common. Considering that the availability of corn and soybeans depends heavily on “high input farming” (and on improved genetics, especially in the recent decades), to a degree we are eating our fuel. What farms do is convert petroleum products such as fertilizer, pesticides, and diesel, to food. Yes, sunlight contributes something important too, but modern farming practiced without the petroleum inputs would cause yields to plummet and probably at least half of our food supply would go away. Farming practices could be changed to improve the yields without high-input practices, but it would take take time to develop the new hybrids and farm practices needed to approach the yields now achieved. And given that in the future we might have good farm yields without high inputs of petroleum products, we can then engineer systems to more efficiently produce fuel from crops.
The high cost of petroleum products poses a complicated challenge. It is partly a technical challenge. It is also a political and even a spiritual challenge to be sure that there is enough to eat. An engineering degree is one good way to participate in helping to provide food and fuel. An engineering degree from Dordt College is better. Here you will study these issues in a Christian context.