This man wants to double corn yields.

[techs]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexmor...y-stines-quest-to-reinvent-agriculture-again/

Fascinating that corn yields have not been a high priority, at least according to the article.

Stines idea to have shorter corn has always been something I wondered about. Corn is a very tall plant and so much seems to be wasted plant material. As long as you have the leaves to gather sunlight short corn, like what was done with rice, would seem to be a no brainer.

 

[IronWing]

The corn is as squat as a Iowa farmer's butt,
An' it looks like its climbin' clear up to his gut.

Just doesn't have the same feeling.

 

[IronWing]

He maybe should work on varieties that need less fertilizer. I guess the higher density of stalks might reduce runoff compared to current varieties.

 

[DrPizza]

The whole plant isn't wasted. They grind up the whole plant and use it for silage.

 

[Bateluer]

Without reading the article or clicking the link, I'm going to guess that most of any increase in corn yields will go to ethanol for fuel?

Am I right?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Without reading the article or clicking the link, I'm going to guess that most of any increase in corn yields will go to ethanol for fuel?

Am I right?

Probably. We only eat 5% of the corn we produce now. 38% of the existing crop goes to ethanol production, and most of the rest goes to animal feed.

 

[Thebobo]

DC area swamped with anti ethanol TV commercials.

------------------

Love me some corn on the cob, just throw it in the microwave husk and all for 2-3 mins let cool and munch down on some golden goodness.

In a campfire fire is even better.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Without reading the article or clicking the link, I'm going to guess that most of any increase in corn yields will go to ethanol for fuel?

Am I right?

Does it matter? You can produce more corn or you can produce the same amount of corn in half the space and then re-purpose the land to grow more of something else. Either way it's a win.

 

[CPA]

First dwarf wheat, now dwarf corn? Get ready for the anti-GMO nuts to come out swinging.

 

[IronWing]

First dwarf wheat, now dwarf corn? Get ready for the anti-GMO nuts to come out swinging.

They'd be late to the party.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zea_(genus)

 

[Meghan54]

Let's see.....it won't make corn cheaper. Increased pesticide costs and fertilizer costs due to the increased plant density.

And the farmer will have to have two sets of planting and harvesting machinery, unless crop rotation is something not practiced any more. The more closely spaced rows will require new planters and harvesters while the rotated crop, prob. soy beans or the like, will use the "old style" of wider rows of planting, making two incompatible sets of machinery required for farmers. Guess who'll foot that bill.

Nice idea, but I'd think we're a long way off from being able to afford to do it.

 

[Markbnj]

Probably. We only eat 5% of the corn we produce now. 38% of the existing crop goes to ethanol production, and most of the rest goes to animal feed.

And then the tasty animals get big and fat.

Profit!

 

[waggy]

Let's see.....it won't make corn cheaper. Increased pesticide costs and fertilizer costs due to the increased plant density.

And the farmer will have to have two sets of planting and harvesting machinery, unless crop rotation is something not practiced any more. The more closely spaced rows will require new planters and harvesters while the rotated crop, prob. soy beans or the like, will use the "old style" of wider rows of planting, making two incompatible sets of machinery required for farmers. Guess who'll foot that bill.

Nice idea, but I'd think we're a long way off from being able to afford to do it.

first thought i had was they are going to have to buy new machinery. though most small farmers actually rent it intead of buying it outright. that shit ain't cheap.

 

[TwiceOver]

Sweet! Now we can subsidize even more useless corn. We don't even need all the corn we have.

 

[Kaido]

The whole plant isn't wasted. They grind up the whole plant and use it for silage.

As a person with a corn allergy...you'd be amazed at what they put corn in. I swear they hire rocket scientists to market their product, it's not your average "hey gluten is in a lot of stuff" product, it's in EVERYTHING. A huge amount of plastics & packaging are now made from corn - plastic bottles, plastic utensils, boxes, linings, etc. Then you break it down into edibles, which splits into corn products & corn derivatives. This is just a small list of hidden corn names in the wild:

http://www.cornallergens.com/list/corn-allergen-list.php

Dextrose (anti-clumping) in your salt? Corn.
Citric acid in your OJ? Corn.
Ascorbic acid in your apple juice? Corn.

I could go on forever. The problem with repetitive exposure to common allergens, grains in particular, is that it can make you go from normal to allergic due to over-exposure. And in the case of corn, you don't even realize how much of it you're eating. It's like hidden sugar and how that sugar is causing diabetes & heart disease because people don't have a clue how much they're actually consuming on a daily basis.

I'm fortunate that I'm not at the anaphylaxis level for corn, but I do know people who are - they have to make EVERYTHING from scratch, including soap & lotion, use metal silverware, etc. They can't drink out of plastic bottles because they start swelling up. While they don't have good allergy tests to identify it yet, the number of people getting diagnosed has been growing like crazy, and I think it's only going to get worse over time.

And strangely enough, most other countries are doing a great job regulating GMO's, food additives, manufacturing agents, etc., but here in the U.S., our political system is so tied into third-party funding that I doubt we'll ever get to a reasonable level for responsibly handling actual food ingredients. I'm not against all GMO's, but it's pretty ridiculous the amount of control that private companies have over our food supply, which makes it extremely difficulty for the minority of us who have to deal with things like food allergies that don't currently require any sort of labeling on the package.

 

[waggy]

Sweet! Now we can subsidize even more useless corn. We don't even need all the corn we have.

that's just ignorant. we do need it or it wouldn't be grown.

 

[TwiceOver]

that's just ignorant. we do need it or it wouldn't be grown.

Sure.

 

[techs]

First dwarf wheat, now dwarf corn? Get ready for the anti-GMO nuts to come out swinging.

It's not GMO. Its done thru selective breeding.

 

[Kaido]

It's not GMO. Its done thru selective breeding.

Not that it matters. There's not really any non-GMO corn or soy left in the world. Even the non-GMO fields are cross-contaminated these days

 

[cKGunslinger]

that's just ignorant. we do need it or it wouldn't be grown.

If someone paid you money to make something you don't need, wouldn't you still make it?

 

[Kaido]

There's a good documentary on corn called King Corn, if I remember right it's available for free viewing on Netflix:

http://www.kingcorn.net/

They trace corn from planting to the market. The proliferation is absolutely amazing.

 

[midwestfisherman]

The whole plant isn't wasted. They grind up the whole plant and use it for silage.

This!

 

[alkemyst]

Stines idea to have shorter corn has always been something I wondered about. Corn is a very tall plant and so much seems to be wasted plant material. As long as you have the leaves to gather sunlight short corn, like what was done with rice, would seem to be a no brainer.

This is your goal?

let me tell you something to help you. HUGE ASS BUILDINGS are about not fitting everything in, think our Major Cities. There is a reason we can't do this with crops. They need to maximize the output.

 

[ViRGE]

that's just ignorant. we do need it or it wouldn't be grown.

It's a bit more complex than that.

Fundamentally the US Government is outright subsidizing corn. This is to ensure that the US is food secure. Being able to grow enough cereal (staple) crops to feed ourselves ensures that we are not reliant on other nations for basic foodsuffs, which buffers the country against foreign crop failures while also ensuring we can feed ourselves in a time of war, be it literal (think WW2) or economic. Corn in turn is our cereal of choice both because of just how well the damned stuff grows in North America compared to every other cereal crop (even wheat) and because of a good dose of politicking in DC.

The problem with the need to be self sufficient is that it requires we massively overproduce corn relative to our current consumption patterns. This is again to ensure that we can still feed ourselves in the face of adverse conditions (war), but also because humans just don't eat all that much corn directly. As far as staple crops go it's not really something people have shown an affinity for eating day in and day out like rice or bread (wheat), so that leaves us with a lot of leftover corn. And with the government backing production through various means to make sure farmers get paid, the end result is that all of that leftover corn is sold for pennies on the dollar, simply to get something for it.

Which results in companies using corn in everything just because it's so cheap. It's a terrible source of ethanol for example, but there's so much of it (and rarely can sugar be grown in its place) that it makes economic sense to do so. It's the same reason why we use corn in place of sugar in so many other places, for that matter. We can't grow much sugar, but we can grow a lot of corn.

So we don't really need all the corn we grow. But because it's in our national interest to have the means to grow that much corn, we grow it anyhow. In the meantime we at least try to put the leftovers to some kind of good use rather than discarding it entirely.

 

[NoTine42]

The whole plant isn't wasted. They grind up the whole plant and use it for silage.

That may be true if you are a cattle farmer, harvesting your own corn.
Most of what I see, the plant is ground up by thè combine, and spread on the ground to become "compost".

There is an argument that, if the entire plant were harvested, too much volume would be taken out of the soil .