Ethanol the cause of the severity of Iowa flooding??

isuno1fan · 06-19-2008, 08:09 AM

Interesting perspective...

I am not a proponent of how demand for corn for ethanol has caused every last acre of land to be plowed. This is likely a stretch, but who knows??

Man to blame for Iowa flooding? - Washington Post - MSNBC.com

bostinelosd · 06-19-2008, 08:14 AM

I wouldnt throw it out as a good possibility. We move alot of land in a period of days that nature sculpted for millions of years.

jberryma · 06-19-2008, 08:17 AM

Just another big city guy with no clue. He's upset because the farmer has able to make a buck or two lately. What he doesn't realize is how hard we've worked forever and barely made ends meat. Now the poor farmer gets a few extra dollars and he's the root of all evil. What trash. And the DNR talking about those wetlands not being around anymore, come on give me a break. If it wasn't for all their own darn rules and so hard to take advantage of that system more people would do it. That's their own fault.

Wesley · 06-19-2008, 08:22 AM

Iowa was swampy many, many years ago (slough). That said, I do not think we would go back. We did receive an exorbitant amount of rain and it either had to go to a swamp or down to Missippi River. I have lived near the Okeefenokee Swamp and I was not impressed. I like farmland better.

bostinelosd · 06-19-2008, 08:24 AM

Originally Posted by Wesley

Iowa was swampy many, many years ago (slough). That said, I do not think we would go back. We did receive an exorbitant amount of rain and it either had to go to a swamp or down to Missippi River. I have lived near the Okeefenokee Swamp and I was not impressed. I like farmland better.

Arrrr ye landlubber.

Cyclonepride · 06-19-2008, 08:30 AM

Cough, cough, cough bull****.

I guess when you take God out of the equation, and put government in His place, then yes, man would be to blame for everything.

raftercy · 06-19-2008, 08:37 AM

Maybe it's the cities faults. If they wouldn't build all of their levees, then the water would have some place to go, and wouldn't go downstream so fast.

I find it ironic that it's OK to build levees by cities to contain the river in the name of progress, but it's not OK for farmers to do similar things to make a buck.

CyCy · 06-19-2008, 08:42 AM

I was talking to 2 retired farmers a couple weeks ago (prior to this last flood) and they told me they had never seen as much soil erosion as this year.

I'm sure some of that is due to the severity of the rain, but not all. I have seen some huge ruts and gullies dug into some fields this year.

I think more marginal hilly land has been plowed recently, plus more waterways have been plowed through to get every bushel of that $6 corn.

puckwarrior · 06-19-2008, 08:46 AM

This isn't a Midwest only problem. Look at the entire east coast. They built how many large cities on what use to be swamp area. People like to live by water. They will continue to live by water as long as the government continues to allow it and is willing to help pay for the clean up when a disaster hits.

keepngoal · 06-19-2008, 08:48 AM

I hear ethanol kills babies, rapes women and impregnates your teenage daughters.

dirty rotten ethanol.

-keep.

jdoggivjc · 06-19-2008, 08:49 AM

Originally Posted by bostinelosd

Arrrr ye landlubber.

Yeah, well, you be a... uh... WACKO!!!

throwittoblythe · 06-19-2008, 08:51 AM

Part of the reason Iowa's soils are so rich to farm in is because of the wetlands that used to be here. One of my soils profs gave a statistic that said something like 99% of Iowa's wetlands have been drained in the last 75 years to make way for farming. The north central to central part of the state is an area where the last glaciers (the Des Moines Lobe, for you geology buffs) extended into Iowa. That area was full of wetlands/marshes until man figured out that he could drain them and have access to very fertile land. So, naturally, our state would probably flood quite often, but we have changed all that in lew of farming/development.

bellzisu · 06-19-2008, 09:03 AM

I love how farming crops or livestock is looked at in a negative light these days to people outside of the midwest. Even some radicals in this state would clame this.

Did farmers till up the wetlands?? Yeah, but they were allowed to, but you also see more drainage ditches to help offset that. I have seen more and more drainage ditches being built to help direct water away. Which all they probably do is quicken the process of the water getting to the river.

I think cities growing have more to do then agriculture. More big cement parking lots also mean less drainage. I thought I read a couple years back about Ankeny having drainage issues due to their rapid growth and increased runoff... Sounds like agriculture is the root of all evil.

Bobber · 06-19-2008, 09:11 AM

My goodness..

I think a lot of urban folks think the following three things are the causes of all the problems in our world.

George Busch

Ethanol

Global Warming

You can mix and match any order you want...

Clonefan94 · 06-19-2008, 09:34 AM

People always want to find someone to blame. Sometimes, **** just happens. No matter how much land would have been left unplowed this year wouldn't have mattered. It was too much water to stay in the river beds. I really believe that everyone today is looking not just for someone to blame, but, someone to place the blame on so they can then sue them later. It just rained too much.

Plus, yeah, I agree with what the guy said earlier about the levees. I lived in Des Moines for years, The downtown is on a flood plane between two pretty big rivers that meet there. If you don't want that to flood, don't build levees, don't build there at all. But, if you are going to build levees, it keeps the water from going where it should and was designed by nature to go.