Biofuels Aren't The Problem

You may recall that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran an article critical of Midwest farmers last week which contained misleading and inaccurate information. Here's but one who wrote to the Post-Dispatch to set the record straight:

Biofuels aren't the problem

The article "Dead zone persists as government drags its feet" (June 10) included a drastic picture titled "The Gulf's 'Dead Zone'." But the picture is not from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the agency that measures and maps the hypoxia. The red zones on the official NOAA maps have been shrinking.

I expect this year hypoxia will increase because of an increase in water flowing down the Mississippi River and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers dumping millions and millions of pounds of nitrogen and phosphorus in the river at Arrow Rock, Mo., to create a habitat for the pallid sturgeon. The last few years we have had an increase in biofuel acres with a decrease in hypoxia. So, apparently, biofuels are not the problem.

Bob Perry, | Bowling Green, Mo.

food and fuel ethanol energy security