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The Iowa caucuses will be held in February 2016, which is sure to bring corn to the forefront of the presidential campaigns. Iowa is the leading producer of both corn and ethanol and, as The New York Times, pointed out:1 "Modern tradition holds that you can't win Iowa (first in the nation!) without selling your soul on ethanol." Surveys suggest the majority of Iowa caucus goers support The Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires oil companies to increase ethanol in gasoline from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons in 2022. This includes 77 percent of Democratic caucus goers and 61 percent of Republicans, according to The Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll.2 Support for the mandate continues even as it becomes clear the amount of corn required to meet this mandate, and the natural habitats that will be further lost to support it, will devastate the environment. Still, as NPR put it, there are signs that "ethanol is not the campaign force it once was."3 Nearly 90 million acres of corn crops were planted in the U.S. in 2015.4 What could the U.S. possibly do with that much corn? It’s far too much for making corn on the cob and popcorn, and even for feeding livestock (although the latter is still a major use for U.S.-grown corn). The No. 1 use for corn from 2010-2012 was actually not for food at all, but rather for fuel. The U.S. “green energy” policy requires oil companies to blend corn ethanol into their gasoline. Corn crops are already subsidized by the U.S. government, so between subsidies and rising ethanol-driven prices, corn has become quite a cash crop for farmers. But this ‘green energy’ program is backfiring because there’s nothing ‘green’ about planting a mega-surplus of corn, especially when natural prairies are now being sacrificed to do it. U.S. prairies are being wiped out so fast to plant neat rows of corn and soybeans that some ecologists say they’re now among the most threatened ecosystems on Earth — even more so than tropical rain forests. In Minnesota, for instance, only 1 percent of the original prairie remains untouched.5 Farmers have much incentive to plow up their grassy fields in favor of genetically engineered corn, and little incentive to preserve it as is. As reported by the Star Tribune:6 " … new varieties of genetically modified corn and soybeans have allowed farmers to push the Corn Belt westward, planting row crops on land once better suited to grazing cattle. Today, that tough prairie sod doesn't have to be plowed, just planted. The new corn and soybean seeds are immune to Roundup; farmers can kill the native grasses with the herbicide, then plant right over them. … The natural events -- heavy spring rains and bone-dry summers -- that are a part of life in the Dakotas might have made farmers more cautious, despite the new seed varieties. But today federally subsidized crop insurance often means they get a payoff even when nature doesn't cooperate … Livestock operators just can't compete against the combined forces of crop insurance and high commodity prices. Around Highmore [South Dakota], they estimate they can make $50 to $100 an acre by grazing cattle; corn is fetching $300 or more per acre [in 2012] … regardless of how good the yields are." Since the U.S, government began requiring ethanol in fuel in 2007, more than 1.2 million acres of grassland have been lost to corn (and soy) crops. This includes:7 The ethanol fuel program was designed to reduce global warming but, ironically, the loss of grasslands is poised to do just the opposite. Plowing up native grasslands to plant vast expanses of corn and soy — the epitome of monoculture — releases carbon dioxide into the environment while increasing erosion and the use of toxic fertilizers and other chemicals. It also destroys habitat for native plants and wildlife. The Star Tribune noted:8 "Perhaps least appreciated … is the role grasslands play in storing carbon, which, when released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, is a major contributor to global warming. Their vast underground root systems, which can reach depths of eight or nine feet, hold an astonishing one-third of the world's carbon stocks. That's almost as much as the amount stored by forests, according to the World Resources Institute … On average, every time an acre of grassland is plowed, it releases 60 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere -- about the amount emitted annually by 30 passenger cars. Preserving grasslands as a hedge against climate change makes sense, even after considering the environmental benefits of ethanol, said Jason Hill, a University of Minnesota professor who studies grasses and biofuels. It will take a century before the carbon saved by burning corn ethanol equals the amount unleashed by plowing up the grassland used to produce it in the first place, he said." There are other issues, too, like fewer birds and other wildlife and soil blowing away in the wind (it’s like the Dust Storm of the early 1900s all over again). There’s flooding to deal with, too, caused by heavy rains pouring off the crop fields. The water picks up fertilizers and pesticides and then runs off into the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, and ultimately on to the Gulf of Mexico, where a massive "dead zone" has now emerged. Not to mention that the neonicotinoid insecticides used to coat genetically engineered corn seeds may affect the developing human nervous system, according to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). As a result, EFSA called for guidance levels of acceptable exposure to be lowered while further research is carried out.9 Marine dead zones (when oxygen concentrations fall below the level necessary to sustain most animal life) are one common consequence of modern-day industrial agriculture. As fertilizer runs off farms in major farming states (like Minnesota and Iowa), it enters the Mississippi River, leading to an overabundance of nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorus, in the water. This, in turn, leads to the development of algal blooms, which alter the food chain and deplete oxygen, leading to dead zones. One of the largest dead zones worldwide can be found in the Gulf of Mexico, beginning at the Mississippi River delta.10
