Houston, we have a problem. Could there be a more well-known distress signal in a few short words? Let’s go back to our grade school science books for a moment. Carbon dioxide, a healthy element of nature, is required to produce plant growth.
Carbon dioxide enables life; without it all life will cease to exist. In fact, I can now make a very good case that the more carbon dioxide we have in the atmosphere the more life that will follow. Currently, we have 443 parts per million of CO2. What if we had 450 or even 500? We would have more life. period.
Instead, we see the race to bury CO2 under the earth’s surface in what they are calling “carbon capture.” Ethanol plants and coal-fired power plants are being held hostage and told that their only path forward involves capturing CO2 and putting it in one of the three proposed CO2 pipelines that traverse over 2,300 miles just in the U.S. alone.
On May 15, 2023, Summit Agriculture Group and Honeywell, the jet engine manufacturer, announced a joint venture for an ethanol plant in the heart of “corn” country on the U.S. Gulf Coast. I recognize that sugar is also a feedstock for ethanol, but I am more intrigued by their location to easy access to foreign shipment areas on the Gulf of Mexico.
This past September, the Air Force actually flew a fighter jet with some new level of technology. Anyone like to guess what the fuel was that made the puppy fly? All guesses for CO2 win a prize.
It appears that I keep learning of another valuable use for the commodity CO2 beyond fueling plants to generate glucose. It appears there is a serious play on to monopolize the CO2 supply before the word really gets out that it is key to healthy living in our future. The really sad part of this story is that the very farmers who are being held hostage for producing CO2 emissions are also being told they need to eliminate 30% of their food production or else. Folks, we are the “or else.” How long will we sit back and let the breath be removed from us, one plant at a time?
Editor’s note: The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not represent the views of High Plains Journal. Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.LoosTales.com, or email Trent at [email protected].
