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Switchgrass farmers don't vote enough. The whole ethanol thing was just to prop up corn prices and production during election runs.
by jvanderbot 3y ago
Switchgrass farmers don't vote enough. The whole ethanol thing was just to prop up corn prices and production during election runs.
- PaulHoule 3y agoHow practical is it really? They’ve been talking about ethanol from cellulosic biomass since at least the 1970s but progress seems about as fast as fast breeder reactors.
- bluGill 3y agoThe idea looks sound, but cellulose is hard to break down. If it wasn't bacteria would have figure it out long ago (before the dinosaurs ago)
- xyzzyz 3y agoNo, that’s not right. Cellulose decomposition is easy. You are probably thinking about lignin decomposition, which is typically done by fungi, not bacteria.
- soperj 3y agoThere's a number of animals called Ruminants that do it regularly no?
- bigbillheck 3y agoThey all use bacteria.
- soperj 3y ago... why wouldn't we use those then?
- changoplatanero 3y agoAnd to make things worse, corn farmers are concentrated in Iowa which was one of the first states in the presidential primary. So they had outsized influence over who gets chosen as president and what campaign promises they have to make in order to get elected.
- sidewndr46 3y agoone of the first? Don't they literally have laws requiring them to have the first presidential primary?
- empyrrhicist 3y agoFirst caucus, which is like a primary, but worse.
- amanaplanacanal 3y agoWho do you mean by “they” here? I believe the parties themselves choose when to have their primaries.
- sseagull 3y agoYep. And the Democrats are changing the order this year. The plan is South Carolina will be first. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/democrats-vote-to-change-order-of-2024-presidential-primary https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/democrats-vote-to-chan...
- justin66 3y agoStates can choose when their primaries happen by law, and the parties can choose when and where their primaries should happen. Entertaining things happen when they differ. The Democratic party cannot force Iowa and New Hampshire to not have their primary and caucus later in the year, but they can threaten not to count their delegates if they go at the wrong time. The sobering thing is, this is not nearly the dumbest part of the American electoral system.