The Mystery…

For the last three days, I’ve had my eye on the roadside crops. There seem to be two main ones: corn and something else. Now, I’m pretty good at identifying agriculture; but this one had me stumped! It was a dark green, low to the ground (relative to the corn), and blanketed its growing space with no perceptible rows. The leaves were abundant and no flowers (leaving out potatoes). As the miles and states sped by, wherever there was corn, this other mystery crop showed up. What could possibly be grown in this quantity across states?

Then it hit me: soy! This and corn are being grown for bio-fuel. It was not a pleasant revelation. Thousands of acres of great land being used to feed our “green” cars. I remembered the vegetarian revolution of the 60s, where people protested with their diets the inordinate amount of land and water that was being used to support livestock, when those same resources could be used to feed many more people with vegetable alternatives.

Now to feed our cars, we use land, water, and chemicals. Hmmmm.