Growing Crops for Biofuels Has Spillover Effects - Growing Crops for Biofuels Has Spillover Effects Shelley Hobbs Many things have increased the use and

Growing Crops for Biofuels Has Spillover Effects Shelley Hobbs Many things have increased the use and production of biofuels here in the United States. New government policies, and high cost of petroleum products has increased the domestic corn supplying the ethanol market from 7.5% in 2001 to 22.6 % in 2007. This has helped the United States dependency on foreign oil lessen over the years and hopefully help the US to become completely dependent on domestic supplies. However this has had a dramatic effect on the agricultural landscape. This high demand for corn has taken corn crops out of the traditional growing regions. Corn crops are traditionally rotated with a crop such as soybeans and sorghum because these crops don’t use the amount of nitrogen that the corn crops do. This allows the ground some recuperation time. This has also increased the price of corn and shortened the supply because of the amount of corn being used for biofuels is increasing every month. This information is important to anyone in the agricultural fields. Anyone from the

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Unformatted text preview: farmer to the rancher to the chicken raiser will be affected by theses prices on corn. Not only with that be a major factor but also the cost and uses of nitrogen and water will be affected. Fertilizers will increase and there will be less of a supply because more will be used on the corn crops. Water restrictions will more then likely take effect off of major water ways and water systems. The amount of water used for crops will increase as the number of crops being planted increases. Cattle prices will go up as well because of the cost of feed and maybe even the cost of land. More land will be purchased for corn crops then raising cattle. Wherever the money is, is where the agricultural industry will go, however there will be many, not just one industry affected by the changes. Everyone in the agricultural industry needs to be aware of the changes that are to come. Everyone will be affected....
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