(Dec. 22, 2008, Huffington Post)

I’m reminded of the farmer who was asked whether he believed in baptism. He replied, “Of course. I’ve seen it done.”

Well, as the ethanol boom has continued, I’ve seen new corn fields in Arizona and California where farmers water the fields with groundwater. Foolishness, oft repeated, does not become wisdom. Repeated claims by some of the comments that little corn is irrigated must come to terms with the map of the Renewable Fuels Association of the location of ethanol refineries in the US. Many are in the arid West.

For those interested in how much water it takes to grow corn, the Water Eduation Foundation (a respected California NGO) thinks it’s 2,500 gallons of water to grow enough corn for 1 gallon of ethanol. The respected environmental writer, Ted Williams, pegs the figure at 1,700 gallons.

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