Fill 'er up with corn and politics

"But the reality is actually much worse. Neither model captures how bad the situation is," Patzek told me. He thinks that quibbling about ethanol's net energy is a distraction from the real problem, which is that our industrial agricultural system is unsustainable because it destroys the environment and relies on massive subsidies of fossil fuels at every stage, from making fertilizers to driving machinery to drying, refrigerating and distilling crops.

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