.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} The early days of a revolution are the exciting part. It suddenly becomes clear to the masses that great changes are needed, people feed off one another’s excitement, and there’s no doubt about the virtue of the cause and its inevitable triumph.

Then comes the merely interesting stage, when practical issues sift down like ash from the previously blue sky. The leaders complain about the outrageous cost of ammunition and bumper stickers. The troops make fun of the choices for “freedom fighter of the month.”

Here in Iowa, we’re in the second stage of the corn-based ethanol revolution, and what seemed like a can’t-miss idea has become a bit complicated.

The Sierra Club and the Worldwatch Institute held a small press conference in Des Moines last week to mark the release of a report about the future of biofuels, and naturally emphasized the great things to come in the form of cleaner energy and more jobs. Let’s hope they’re exactly right, for the sake of the planet, the United States, Iowa and what’s left of the family farm.

But when you read the report’s analysis of what has happened so far, it seems as if OPEC doesn’t have much to worry about yet.

“The biofuel refineries need fewer workers than was initially projected, and the rising prices of corn, farming inputs and land are hurting people who do not own land or produce corn,” it says.

“Even worse, there is a distinct possibility that corn ethanol will fall out of favor before Iowa develops alternatives, leaving the state with too much corn, empty towns and even more indebted farmers.”

Definitely not the fun part of the revolution. What do you think, Gen. Washington – spend the winter at Valley Forge or just go home and forget about it?

In the opinion of Chris Peterson, president of the Iowa Farmers Union, we’ve already passed the point of no return.

“We cannot turn back,” he said. Fertilizer costs are up, land rents are up – most grain farmers rent far more land than they own – and Peterson said, “Grain (prices) can go down, but inputs are never going back down.”

So maybe our choices aren’t limited to “get rich” and “stay the same.” Maybe there’s also “go downhill.” “If we let this one slip away,” Peterson said, “we’ll be facing a train wreck in this state.”

The Sierra Club and Worldwatch are calling for more wind and solar power, which stirs up some warm, nostalgic feelings – it’s like the early 1970s, except without an unpopular war. No, wait; it’s exactly like the early 1970s.

But they’re also advancing some bigger concepts involving more and better government subsidies.

We need to make progress on replacing corn with biomass crops that will provide a more efficient energy source, they say. That requires researchers’ time and your money.

Grasses probably will ace out corn, but the report also mentions “woody crops such as willow or other fast-growing trees.” In other words, the stuff we’ve been trying to keep out of fencerows for the past century.

“One innovative idea,” the report says, “is to simply pay farmers the net value of corn production for growing cellulosic crops. The idea of paying farmers $250 per acre just for growing grass may seem outlandish, but the cost of not doing so may be missing the chance to transition to the next generation of biofuels.”

Sound OK to you?

The way it works now, thousands of Iowa acres are quietly producing grass in the Conservation Reserve Program. But the farmers who agreed to a per-acre payment price a few years ago aren’t making nearly as much as they could in today’s corn market, and they aren’t allowed to harvest the grass.

If you want more corn to feed the increasing number of ethanol plants, that CRP ground looks like cornfields waiting to be planted.

Peterson thinks it would be all right to take some land out of the CRP, but certainly not all of it.

Ed Woolsey of the Union of Concerned Scientists would like to see the CRP ground stay covered with erosion-preventing grass, but he would also like to see farmers allowed to harvest it for biofuel.

However, the Sierra Club’s regional representative, Andrew Snow, wants even more land enrolled in the CRP.

Revolutions get confusing after a while, and sometimes it’s hard to know which direction to attack.