In yet another blow to the burgeoning biofuel industry, a report released Thursday has found that increased temperatures due to global warming could damage the growing of corn in the US Midwest and South by as much as $1.4 billion per year.
The study, released by advocacy federation group Environment America, found Iowa, Illinois, and Nebraska to be the potentially most hardest hit with an average of $116 million in yearly damages.
America's Midwest is the corn belt of the country and if the report proves correct, could severely affect corn-based ethanol production. The ethanol industry is already reeling from claims that moves towards growing crops for biofuel instead of food crop has caused scarcity in developing countries resulting in riots due to lack of food security.
“Corn likes it cool, but global warming is raising temperatures across the nation,” said Environment America Global Warming Advocate Timothy Telleen-Lawton. “Hotter fields will mean lower yields for corn, and eventually, the rest of agriculture.”
An Environment America statement said that research from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Carnegie Institution had already shown that global warming is lowering corn production worldwide relative to a world without global warming.
The organisation called on the government to revert to renewable energy such as that provided by wind power or solar power to reverse the warming trend and the stand is supported by many farming groups in America.
“With clean energy such as wind and solar, agriculture has a huge opportunity to be part of the solution to global warming,” said American Corn Growers Association President Keith Bolin.
Telleen-Lawton said that the research proved that now was the time for change.
“Big Oil, Dirty Coal, and other polluters are fighting to maintain the status quo, but now is the time for change," he said. "We need to unleash the power of clean energy to rebuild our economy and solve global warming."
"Environment America urges Congress to vote for a strong bill that maintains science-based pollution reduction targets and speeds the transition to a clean energy economy,” he added.
© 2009 The Tech Herald.com, WOTR Limited
