Food or Fuel?

What is more important to you food or fuel? This raises the question of whether or not corn should be used to create ethanol as a biofuel or be used as a food source. The question at hand has created some major controversies among society. The side for the use of corn as food argues that we should feed the world before creating energy with the corn. On the flip side people argue that we should use ethanol because it decreases global warming and it lowers our dependency on petroleum fuels. You may wonder how this issue has come about in society.

People have known about ethanol as a fuel for a long time, but it hasn’t been used as an energy source until recent years. There are several reasons for this. First, with rising fuel prices at the pump people started looking into alternative energy sources that would be cheaper. One alternative was turning corn into ethanol which became quite popular in the United States. A second reason ethanol has grown in recent years is that it is a cleaner source of fuel which means it decreases global warming. Another reason corn has been used to create ethanol is an attempt to stimulate the economy. 40% of the annual corn crop in the US now goes toward ethanol production making it the number one use of corn produced. Ethanol would stimulate the economy because it would raise corn prices for farmers and create jobs in the ethanol plants. When this biofuel was reintroduced in recent years corn prices were low and there was a bountiful crop. During this time farmers were having a hard time surviving the rising fertilizer and fuel prices with such a low corn price.  

Now you may ask how this has become a problem? The crop of corn can be severely hurt by Mother Nature. For example this last year the majority of the Corn Belt was hit by a drought. This drought increased corn prices dramatically making it uneconomical even for ethanol production. Food prices have spiked three times in the past five years, because of high commodity prices. Cattle production is at its lowest since 1949/1950. Approximately 48 million people are on food stamps. The high corn price also hurts low-income developing countries where the poor spend nearly half of their income on food. All of these examples can in a way be related to the spike in corn prices.

So now what is the solution to this problem? There are many good arguments coming from both sides here. If ethanol production stops, corn and food prices both go down making it affordable for everyone. Then how is the farmer going to make it since the price of fuel has went up because no ethanol is being produced and their profit has gone down with the decreased corn prices. Next year may be a bumper crop and prices may come back down but we cannot predict that. This is a delicate system in which all decisions need to be weighed and considered before a decision is made.

I think that a balance needs to be made, so that the farmers do not get shorted and food prices come down. If I was going to take any side I would defend the farmer. My reasoning for this is that I believe the farmers have it the hardest, working long days and taking big risks. Like John F. Kennedy said, “The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways.”

http://theallegiant.com/corn-ethanol-food-corntroversy/

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/10/201210993632838545.html

Beets an Alternative Energy Source

Did you know that Henry Ford originally planned to fuel the Model Ts with ethanol? Biofuels have been around just as long as the first cars. Biofuels never became popular because huge deposits of petroleum were discovered which was cheaper to refine than creating biofuels. Biofuels have recently become an interest again due to the rise in fuel prices and concerns about global warming. Biofuels can be created from many plant sources such as corn, sugarcane, palm oil, and energy beets.

The interest and research into energy beets has increased recently similar to other biofuels. Energy beets are sugar type beets not produced for food, but are bred distinctively for the production of biofuels. The reason energy beets have growing interest is that they produce double the ethanol per acre compared to corn which has been one of the primary sources of ethanol lately.

Energy beets are important to Agriculture Engineers for many reasons. Two main reasons Ag Engineers are working with energy beets for protecting the environment and to meet a growing demand of fuel.

Working on this new development of energy beets, Ag Engineers have worked to make the beets have positive effects on the environment. For instance these new beets are certified by the Environmental Protection Agency as advanced biofuels. Advanced biofuels create 50% less carbon emissions compared to the traditional oil based fuels. This will in turn lower the greenhouse gasses that are causing global warming. Another aspect about the environment, Ag Engineers are concerned with the management of the fields the beets are grown on. Energy beets have a tap root that can penetrate up to six feet into the ground. These long roots have a positive impact because they can use water and nutrients that other plants cannot reach.  The long roots also improve internal drainage of the soil.

The second reason Ag Engineers are working with energy beets is to meet the growing demand of biofuels. The United States has increased standards for the going green movement and increasing prices at the pump. By 2020, the US standard will have at least 36 billion gallons of renewable energy of which 21 billion gallons must be advanced biofuels. Also as the population grows higher, supplies of fuel will be needed to supply the demand. If new forms of fuel are not created the price of the traditional petroleum products will increase even more to control the demand.

Ag Engineers are one of the main driving forces working to solve the energy crisis. One driving force would be North Dakota State University which is currently running test plots on a variety of soil conditions and regions to gain information regarding this new development.

http://bismarcktribune.com/news/agnews/beets-being-considered-for-ethanol-production/article_f8d32ac8-7c3f-11e2-9079-001a4bcf887a.html

http://www.beetsallbiofuel.com/index.html

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/biofuel-profile/

Autonomous Tractor

Agricultural practices have seen many new technologies in recent years for increasing yields and lowering production cost. Some of these advancements have come from the increase in precision in the field and others from hybrids and traits of the seed. One of the most recent released technologies is the Autonomous Tractor or Spirit developed by Autonomous Tractor Corporation (ATC). The Spirit is a driverless tractor meaning that even though people are not on the machine physically they are in control of the tractor and its task. The Spirit is one of the first fully functional tractors in the field without a person physically on the machine.

The Spirit has many new features that previous tractors do not. It operates off diesel-electric similar to a train. It has twin four cylinder 202 horsepower diesel engines to produce electricity. The advantages of diesel-electric drive systems are increased fuel economy, no transmission, and reduced maintenance. A second feature would be the remote wireless control system. This system allows for up to sixteen Autonomous Tractors to be monitored from one control station less than twenty-five miles from the machine. Another new feature is the dual APS systems (Area Positioning System). This system was developed by ATC because they determined that Global Positioning System (GPS) was not reliable enough to operate a self-driven machine. ATC expects that the APS will be accurate within an inch using lasers, computers, and radio-transmissions for navigation. The machine is driven on twenty-five inch rubber tracks powered by four electric motors. Having these motors eliminates the need for a transmission, differential, and axle, which are all costly to build, maintain and repair.

As of now the Spirit does have some limitations compared to what other tractors can accomplish. One limitation is that it cannot handle some of the equipment for conventional tillage. The reason for this is that the tractor’s design makes it to light to pull some modern equipment. The Spirit weighs in at about half the weight of the biggest traditional tractors built. A plus side to this is that the Spirit decreases soil compaction and can operate on wetter fields compared to before. Another effect of the Spirit is that it decreases labor. This decrease is good and bad depending what perspective you look at it. It is good for the farmer because it lowers the cost to put in crops not having to pay for labor. The other perspective is that it could be bad for the economy because it decreases the number of jobs needed, which could increase unemployment.

ATC figures the cost to build the Spirit is going to be about half that of a traditional tractor. The reason for this is that the machine does not have gears, shafts, and a transmission like a modern tractor. ATC intends to build 25 tractors for 2013 and sell them to farmers at a twenty percent discount to get farmers to invest in this new product. The Autonomous Tractor is new technology that could have a huge impact on agriculture in the future.

http://www.autonomoustractor.com/

http://www.agweek.com/event/article/id/19649/

http://www.wday.com/event/article/id/68775/

 

The Agricultural Engineering Field

Agricultural Engineers (AGEN) apply knowledge of biological, physical, and engineering sciences to problems that deal with living systems. They develop systems to produce more food, while taking in the wellbeing of people and the environment. They test and design new equipment to make sure it is safe for agricultural and construction purpose. Another aspect of Agricultural Engineering is to improve the quality of living while protecting the environment.

During school Ag Engineers can emphasis in three classes which are environmental, agricultural, and biomaterials systems. Environmental systems are designed to ready people for aspects such as irrigation, watershed management, hydrology, and waste management. The agricultural part is for people seeking knowledge in machines, power, structural, and electronic systems. Biomaterials are for people wanting to combine biological and physical sciences for handling and processing biomaterials.

Graduates with a degree in Agricultural Engineering are prepared for many diverse career paths. They may work to design, develop, test, and manufacture machines for agricultural purposes. They could also protect or enhance agricultural commodities by working with the way they are stored, handled, or processed. Another career path for Ag Engineers is to design irrigations systems and develop electrical and electronic applications for agricultural products. Typical job titles for these career paths include Design Engineer, Test Engineer, Consulting Engineer, Quality Control Engineer, and Energy Advisor.  Examples of employers for Ag Engineers would include John Deere, Arctic Cat, Hormel, Cargill Inc., Natural Resources Conservation Service, and rural electric cooperatives.

The outlook for this career field is relatively high. There are several reasons for the relatively high outlook. One reason is that there are many options after graduations for careers. Having knowledge of many different aspects of agricultural and engineering increases your marketability to employers. Another reason is the fact that people are always going to need food. With the growing population of the world food production will have to increase to supply the demand. Agricultural Engineers we be needed to figure out and develop new technology to increase production to feed the growing population. With the rising prices of fossil fuels Ag Engineers will be needed to increase the efficiency of different process and develop new technologies that consumers can afford.

There are several misleading and flawed viewpoints of engineers by the general public. The biggest question of the general public is why would an engineer design something like this. Meaning they do not like or understand the reason for which certain process operate or the way objects have been designed. There are several different reasons in why products are designed and made the way they are. One reason would be cost. Easier designs generally cost less which is more affordable for the general public. A second reason would be rules and regulations. Engineers have to follow federal rules and design products to meet safety requirements. A third reason things are made the way they are is patents. People can not infringe on others patents so they have to create new designs to produce products.