It’s billed as a champion energy crop that yields three times as much ethanol per acre as corn, a fast-growing field grass that’s ideal for making clean auto fuel without displacing scarce crop land. The N.C. Biofuels Center has been pushing for more than a year to grow the Arundo plant on a mass scale, touting it as a new cash crop and the prime energy source for a proposed $170 million biofuel refinery in eastern North Carolina.But the bamboo-like grass has a dark side. Some scientists have called Arundo “the plant from hell” and rank it among the world’s 100 worst invasive plants.....The lore about the Arundo is that it can grow up to 10 inches a day, resprout from roots buried 9 feet deep, and burrow under roadways to infest neighboring fields. It’s nearly impossible to get rid of once established in some states. California has spent more than $70 million on eradication programs over the past two decades.
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So....North Carolina regulators are being asked to allow mass production of the Arundo so that a biofuel plant can be set up. Should the crop be grown?
Biofuel production from dedicated bioenergy crops (DBC) creates a host of negative externalities for the surrounding environment. Over the next 100 years the expansion of biofuel crop expansions is expected to be the biggest factor in the loss of biodiveristy as the process eats more and more natural habitats. DBCs present a great opportunity in the reduction of petroleum based energy sources in a process that helps to sequester more carbon in growing than the fuel produces once burned. The implementation of species outside of their native habitat should be dealt with extreme care, but the benefits derived from these fuel sources are so great that they out weigh the risks. Furthermore, with further genetic research it is possible to help provide methods to restrict growth patters, engineering susceptibility to certain control mechanisms can be developed.
ReplyDeleteAny plant that already has a reputation as a dangerous and invasive weed should not be considered a candidate for massive intensive agriculture. It is impossible to know the true risks of cultivation of this plant, and once put into motion, humans will have little ability to truly control its fate. Though the potential energy gains from Arundo could be great, they did not seem any where near the magic crop that it would have to be in order to justify the immense ecological risks that planting massive fields of it would entail.
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