Ethanol: Food, Fuel Or None Of The Above

Since 2007, when crude oil's price began climbing and taking all other commodities along for the ride, there has been a furor brewing over ethanol.

Last year, ethanol bashers said the world was taking food out of the mouths of starving children to fuel our SUV's.

This year, ethanol bashers have a new line. The fuel's "carbon footprint" isn't sufficiently small to make it a viable alternative to gasoline.

I never thought I would live to hear an environmentalist say we should burn more gasoline in place of ethanol.

New research from Duke University said plowing conservation land to produce corn for ethanol releases carbon into the atmosphere. Therefore it is better not to farm the land.

So I ask this. If it is good to not farm land for fuel, would it not be even better to not farm the land at all? That way, no carbon would be released as soil is turned.

The air would be pure. Greenhouse gases would disappear. All would be well.

So today I offer this bold prediction. Before 2050, environmentalists will propose that agriculture be banned. They will argue that growing food in the soil is so environmentally damaging that it must no longer be tolerated -- for the sake of the land. Rain cannot be allowed to nourish eco-damaging crops when it is needed to replenish streams and rivers -- for the sake of the water.

Like ancient people who worshiped the land and the water as gods, man will again bow down to nature...and slowly disappear from the face of the earth.

After all, that is the goal of the religion of extreme environmentalism. Eliminate man from the picture, and all will be well.