“The problem is that a lot of energy goes into growing those crops,” says Randall Jackson, professor of agronomy at UW-Madison and sustainability lead at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC). “If you actually calculate the amount of energy it takes to make the fertilizer, plant the crops, make the gasoline to plant the crops and the carbon that it takes to make pesticides and herbicides to keep those crops as monocultures, the net energy gain hovers right around zero. Often it is negative, often it is positive, but it’s always right around zero … It’s just a way to run our cars on natural gas and coal because that’s what goes into making all those products that make the grain that go into the gas tank.”
Office of Strategic Communication