[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

The point isn't increasing production to drive further consumption, the idea is to use the existing production in a more efficient manor.

Why devote half of US corn production to livestock feed? That is an incredible figure. it's a reduction of energy. You can do more with the feed than you can with the meat that consumes it. It screws farmers AND traditional ranchers and other small scale livestock producers, and their local economies.

Personally, I'd like to see the abandoned farmland left abandoned, maybe even cleaned up, not reclaimed to produce even more food that won't be eaten by humans.

Let it become hunting grounds.

I wasn't arguing for or against biomass fuels, was just stating why the corn goes where it does and what could change that.

Since most of the farmland in question is private property it is a little difficult to determine what happens to it.

That is, however, the main action taken by the RMEF (Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation). They buy up land and ensure that land remains elk habitat (along with all of the other species who share their range). We're a long way from bringing elk back to the plains though and that is where most of this land is. Just pointing out that there is a group out there doing exactly what you suggest.