We’re gonna get E15 gas now

Start a garden, get chickens, learn to can, learn hydroponics, learn to trap/hunt/cure meat, plant fruit trees and natural edible plants, build a water catch system, grow microgreens and mushrooms…brother there’s a long list of things folks can do to be prepared for anything. Never to late to start. Before it was just “nice” having a garden. Now it is essential…would definitely be tougher to get by without.

 

Welp, that got me started…and…aint nothin on TV anyway….

(Deep inhale sound)

I’m of the frame of mind that we would all be better off in life if we used basic principles to guide our thinking. Using principles (sometimes they might look like morals) are just mental shortcut to keep us from wasting time on stupid/wrong ideas.

Take for example this idea: Making food from your own poop. On one hand, it could solve the worlds hunger problems! Maybe rich people could give their poop-food to poor people if they cant poop enough to make poop-food. There could be a nobel prize in it for somebody with this idea! And it would make is feel good about ourselves with regard to poop-food donations.

But, on the other hand, there is a basic principle through which we should filter the poop-food idea, which is: That’s f*cking repugnant, disgusting, and unclean. There. No need to study it further. No need to waste time discovering that human waste is the stuff our bodies couldnt use or should not hold on to. Well, what about fertilizer maybe? Milorginite? Sure, lets super concentrate meds and other shit unable to be unprocessed by our bodies and sprinkle it on our cucumbers and tomatoes. Riight. How bout we just stopped at “repugnant.”

Buuuut the human brain, devoid of right principles, is very good at rationalizing the most plainly idiotic things. The brain is extremely good at this. It’s not made for this, but the brain can be misused, just like any other tool. It will fancify whatever thought you think needs fancifying. Granda would have called it “lying to yourself, but I digress.

Using food for fuel to is a plainly idiotic idea we have spent too much time “studying”. It’s a messed up idea, and it’s borderline immoral. It used to be a common sentiment that you don’t play with your food. Kids got hand-slapped for it in public. It disrespects what food means (sustenance), it disrespects the efforts to bring it to your table (farmers, the use of the soils, mom and dad’s work for the money to bring it to your plate), and it disrespects those who could not afford to have the meal you are playing with.

God help us if there is widespread famine in the US. You dont think there would be a political leader ready to take personal advantage of the righteous moral outrage felt by hungry (literally hungry) masses of people? It would be a bloodbath.

Anybody that has struggled to provide food understands the concept of not taking your food for granted. It quickly becomes a moral issue. Which in the end, is why generally we have lived by the principle of not messing with food.

I read a free book when Kindles first came out a while back (with the cool e-ink). H.G. Wells: The War in The Air, written late 1800s I think. In it, the tides of a future WWI were on the horizon. A banker was in a small London suburban shop. Just an ordinary small store, with simple shopkeepers that grew potatoes to stock their own shop. The banker, sensing a developing societal panic with the geo-political situation, decides it would be good to speculate with the price of bread. He decides to pay 1000 dollars for one loaf. The transaction was witnessed by those in the shop, and they promptly killed him. Wow!

That book was written before WWI. That scene only has an impact because there is an ingrained principle that messing around with peoples’ ability to eat is not a good idea.

Corn is an incredibly energy dense food. It takes a lot of natural and human resources to make it. But it gives a lot back to people, and quickly.

Now we get politicians and businessmen playing with our food, and get us arguing about “efficiency” and telling us how much we’ll save.

I was maybe in my mid teens maybe when this corn fuel bullshit started, and I immediately thought to myself that it seemed a wrong thing to do. In today’s language, it seemed like a “first world” way to show concern for your environment. I did not grow up poor. My parents did. Maybe that’s what makes the principle stick out to me, and Im glad my parents gave me an inkling of what it was like to share one chicken for 10 family members, but meat was only once in a great while. They were so positive though, not complaining about it, just sharing how joyful it was when they got meat. It’s why I can eat chicken feet, and knuckle cartilage to this day, even though I can easily pound down a whole chicken whenever I want.

TLDR: Dont play with your food!!!

 

The recent billionaire conference had a big presentation about how much easier, cheaper and more efficient it is to produce 10 pounds of crickets (superfood) versus 10 pounds of beef. There were pics of gourmet crickets on plates…these mfers aren’t going to get me to eat bugs instead of steak. Same people jamming EVs down our throats will be pushing that stuff too before you know it. “Plus bugs don’t have feelings.” We certainly live in interesting times.

 

I'm not sure this is true anymore. At one time corn provided people with a lot of nutrition but with all the crazy farming practices that take place now with GMO's, I believe most of the corn we farm is pretty much empty calories.

 

That's why I coat mine in butter. As you know, butter is full of vitamins.

 

Well said. I would add that in addition to your points, we have no true oil shortage, only a self-imposed one. We had more than anyone a couple of years ago. So the 'need' for an alternative, less-efficient fuel doesn't exist.

 

It’s depressing as hell to watch everything go down the tubes. This is not what we all work so diligently for.

This is not what my family, friends and veterans served for.

 

Haha. Never underestimate any food's ability to serve as a butter deliver vehicle!

Mayonnaise too!

 

Yup! I would go so far as to say that is part of the problem. Sugars are where the energy is. Id be willing to bet that ethanol production has probably been a major reason leading to many of the genetic engineering changes made to corn in recent history.

Sure, we’ve always hybridize crops for improved qualities as a food. But if we are selecting for non-food traits (sugar content for the ethanol plant customers), that is even worse than just diverting one season’s corn crops to fuel production. We are messing with something that can affect food production much further down the line, maybe permanently.

Heck, even doing this for food’s sake can be dangerous. We’ve managed to loose nearly all of the genetic diversity of bananas in less than a hundred years.

 

Oh man, have you ever tried elote?

grilled corn brushed with mexican crema and topped with cotija cheese, chili powder, smoked paprika, and cilantro. Then squeeze a lime on it! Insanely good!

 

Absolutely.

GMO food is scary territory. Too many unknown consequences.

 

Mmmm. Round here, the elote man sells them similar, but with mayonnaise instead of cream. Makes a good salty/sweet treat.

 

Elote is MONEY! Sooo tasty. My bro makes it on a Green Egg, mayo or butter & Tajín. Gonna have to make some this weekend!

 

I think gas should be $8 dollars a gallon.

 

You're not wrong. It probably should be $8/gallon but the gov't subsidizes it so it appears cheaper to us at the pumps.

 

Remember that the corn used for ethanol production is not edible sweet corn. It’s called no. 2 yellow field corn, which is indigestible by humans. It’s high in starch and used as animal feed, food supplements, and ethanol production, and other applications. So it doesn’t directly displace food production, but more land, fuel, resources, etc. are dedicated to it.
What’s more concerning to me is the worse fuel economy, the cost, and the possible harm to ICE engines.

 

You’re telling me! Once upon a time in an Army survival school in late August all we found was a field full of feed corn and some minnows. You cannot make that crap edible no matter what. Believe me, we tried. We ate it, but it was not edible. Lmao

 

Why can’t we make fuel out of those GD grass carp taking over the country? If they can make WD-40 from fish oil they can burn it for fuel?

 

I’m down for some top fuel alcohol.

 

Great point. Sad how those Asian Carp are taking over. I pray they don’t take over the Great Lakes.

 

Thanks for sharing that video. I have read about the canal but not seen that video.

I almost wish they shut the canal down and shipped via truck and rail. In my opinion letting the Asian carp in the Great Lakes is too big of a risk.

I say that selfishly since I live, boat, and fish for natural species here. But I think most Americans would be in favor of protecting our largest water resource.

 

best idea ever! Put people to work catching them…sell them to processors….

 

So?? What's the difference between a shallow root crop such as corn and something that's deep tilled like potatoes or beets?

 

We compost (5x5x5 cube), grow berries, herbs, potatoes & beans (as well as flowers for pollinators. Practice xeriscaping where possible. All on ~ 1/4 acre.

 

WHY would it release carbon at harvest? Drying releases moisture, not carbon. Decomposition and decomposers release some CO2 but also return carbon to the soil. If carbon is not released by tilling (&soil depth), why would "no till" be better? I haven't done a "lit search", but I bet grass-fed cattle release more methane than grain fed (?).

BTW: "grain-fed" cattle ARE "grass-fed" since grains (except beans) are grass seeds!

 

No, but one year I let my grass clippings de-compose in a pile. Got some GIANT grubs and earthworms the diameter of my index finger at the bottom where it retained moisture. We do have some giant earthworms in our area, but I don't think they are the Palouse giant earthworm: The ones I found were about a foot long when crawling.

From Wikipedia (with sources): "The giant Palouse earthworm or Washington giant earthworm (Driloleirus americanus, meaning lily-like worm[2]) is a species of earthworm belonging to the genus Driloleirus inhabiting the Palouse region of Eastern Washington and North Idaho, in the United States. The worm was discovered in 1897 by Frank Smith near Pullman, Washington. It can burrow to a depth of 15 feet (4.6 m).[3]

Although it had been thought to be extinct in the 1980s, recent evidence has demonstrated that the species is still living. The latest sighting included recovery of two specimens, an adult and a juvenile, which were unearthed on March 27, 2010 by scientists at the University of Idaho including Samuel James."

 

I assume you are talking about C4 respiration and not plants in general. If you are talking about "biome conservation", then methane and CO2 should be very important to you. The cow "shit" as you put it is largely carbon (ever start a fire with a cow "pie"?), so the carbon is merely recycled, and some is passed out as CO2 as well as methane (CH4). Grazing is well known to deplete rangeland and destroy the "biome" (For reference, you can access the USFWS Species listings for San Joaquin kit fox, greater sage grouse, Atwater's prairie chicken and a host of others). As the climate changes (not just warming, but changes). grasslands and shrub-steppe move more northward at the rate of about 100 yards per year=doesn't seem like much but it all adds up.

As far as Joel Salatin goes, he is farmer with a degree in English! I am not putting down non-scientists as many can be very self-educated but, from reading his site, he has a definite agenda. Also, eastern pasturage is very different from western ranges. There is a reason we call grazing leases "rural welfare".

 

Biome: "a large naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat, e.g. forest or tundra." I would argue that a grazed grassland is not a "naturally occurring habitat" (except maybe in the case of the buffalo migrations.) But, killing off predatory animals would be destroying the "biome" you appear to worship. Numerous studies have shown that re-introduction of predators restore a healthy habitat.

Back to the original subject, I personally do not care if I am using E10 or E15 gas.

But, you are correct that we are off tangent! I will let you have the last word if you wish!

 

Not near as strong as the oil lobby
Was it Henry that originally wanted To run I/C engine on corn, and Rock wanted fossil fuel.