So What's So Bad About Corn?

"The president's goal is to have 35 billion gallons of biofuels by 2017, and we're currently at 6 billion gallons. That would mean a huge increase in land for corn," says Jerry Schnoor, a University of Iowa professor of civil and environmental engineering. "The environmental constraints are just too great. It's too much nutrients, too much soil loss, too much pesticides. We don't have the land."

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Ethanol advocates vow that the next generation of technology will make ethanol more attractive environmentally. Cellulosic ethanol could be made from cornstalks or, better yet, from perennial crops such as switchgrass. But that's the future. Today, corn, and specifically corn kernels -- little nuggets of starch -- are the sole source of commercial ethanol.

"The thing about ethanol: It's not a perfect solution for our energy, but it's a pretty good one. You don't throw out the good in search of the perfect," said Julius Schaaf, who farms 4,000 acres in Randolph, Iowa, and is chairman of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board.

Both Food and Fuel

Driving around Nevada in the truck he calls Bob -- for "big ol' beast" -- Couser grew increasingly combative. He groused about "tree huggers." His way of farming is sustainable, he says. On his feedlot, he uses an innovative system of waste disposal that state officials have praised. He owns lake property and says, "I want to make sure that when I go out in my water scooter, that that water's clean."

As for the professors who criticize industrial agriculture, Couser said, "Have they come out and taken a handful of dirt and seen how black it is?"

It is, indeed, as dark as spent coffee grounds -- espresso roast.

Couser grabbed an ear of corn (planted from Monsanto No. 6163 seed, which he said gave the corn good "standability" even in a stiff autumn wind), shucked it, broke off some kernels and popped them into his mouth like candy.

He made a mental calculation.

"It's about 16 percent moisture," he said. Dry enough to harvest. "It's hard to believe you can put that in your tank, isn't it?"

It's food; it's fuel; it's in every product imaginable. It's the plant that ate Iowa.

Couser said he knows the precise geographical center of the state. He drove up a road, past his house, past his feedlot, took a left through more corn and soybean stubble, and pulled his truck onto the soggy edge of a humble and nondescript patch of open field, the pinpoint center of the heart of the Corn Belt:

A hayfield.

So there's still one of those left.