Being the father of a two-year-old can be challenging, but it also has perks. If I happen to spill a little milk on the counter with my morning cereal, leave clothes on the floor, or drop some crumbs in the kitchen, I have a convenient scapegoat.

When my wife asks about spilt milk, socks, or crumbs I can simply shrug and say things like, “Kids, what can you do?” or “Just look what your daughter did.” While my wife does not always fall for this ploy, it is often effective.

Of course, if my wife looks a little closer and discovers cereal on my breath, a sandwich in my hand or realizes that the clothes on the floor are mine, my argument quickly falls apart. Playing the blame game can seem like a quick fix, but often backfires under closer scrutiny.

A similar version of the blame game is going on in the complex international climate change and biofuel debate. The concept of indirect land use change is being looked at by the U.S. EPA and continually pops up in international climate change regulation forums, including the Copenhagen Climate Conference, in Copenhagen, Denmark last month.

A major global concern in the climate change debate is the clearing of the rainforests in South America and other parts of the world. Indirect land use change theorists have concocted a series of loose connections in which they try to place blame on U.S. farmers and the biofuel industry for clearing of the rainforests.

The argument goes something like this. The U.S. makes biofuels from corn and soybeans and, as a result, the prices for these commodities go up. The higher price of soybeans encourages landowners to clear more land in South American rain forests to plant more soybeans.

On the surface this sounds like it makes sense, but the reality is that the connection between U.S. biofuels and the rainforest is non-existent. There are many factors outside of the price of soybeans that go into the clearing of the rainforests.

“John Cain Carter of Allianca de Terra, a Mato Grosso, Brazil land alliance, has been front and center on the debate of Amazon deforestation and the principal reasons why it is happening. Mr. Carter, a former U.S. Army Ranger, is not shy about dispelling myths of corn and corn ethanol’s role in deforestation,” said Dwayne Siekman, of the Ohio Corn Growers Association who was part of a six-person delegation from the National Corn Growers Association seated at the Copenhagen Climate Conference. “His simple and direct answer is ‘the notion that the U.S. corn farmer is playing a role in the deforestation of the Amazon is asinine. No one in Brazil makes decisions based on how much ethanol is produced from corn in the U.S.’”

Carter explained that simple local economics, and not U.S. farmers, are to blame for the clearing of the rainforests. Much of the damage in the region is a result of illegal land-grabbers. So, since most U.S. farmers are not illegal South American land grabbers, they really do not have much to do with the situation.

Carter describes life in his corner of Brazil much like the lawless Wild West portrayed in the movies. Until recently, luxuries such as indoor plumbing, law enforcement, and other things we take for granted were not available. Do you think people without indoor plumbing care about corn ethanol production in another country?

The argument of indirect land use change is shaky, at best. But as a result of this thinking, indirect land use change supporters think that the carbon footprint of biofuels should include consideration for the clearing of South American rainforests. When biofuel critics factor this into the domestic regulatory debate about whether biofuels are better for the environment (and the climate) than petroleum power, they have a stronger case against biofuels.

The bottom line is that the climate change debate is wrought with examples of the blame game and we must scrutinize proposals from our lawmakers and leaders to find out the reality of the situation. We need to move forward with facts on this issue and not the whims of whoever is playing the best blame game for their own agenda. Ultimately, a changing climate can either be blamed on humans or God, and only one of those parties can be taxed.

 

Matt Reese writes for Ohio’s Country Journal and lives in Baltimore, Ohio. For questions or comments, please contact him at mkcreese@yahoo.com. This column was brought to you by Ohio’s agricultural organizations.

Those who love Oreos may not be too interested in the fact that the Ohio wheat breeding program just got a grant for new harvesting equipment, but they should be -- it could lead to improvements in cookies and the other wheat products we enjoy.

Ohio is recognized around the world for growing high quality soft red winter wheat that is used for making products like crackers and cookies (including Oreos). The hard red wheat grown widely in the western U.S. is better suited for making breads.

“The big difference between a hard wheat and a soft wheat is that the hard wheat flour absorbs a lot of water and holds it and the soft wheat flour does not hold much water,” said Clay Sneller, who heads up Ohio State University’s wheat breeding program.

The resurgence in the interest in the dietary value of whole grain has added a new twist to the traditional uses of these two different types of wheat.

“Everyone should be eating whole grain because it is good for you, but we are having a bit of a problem making whole grain soft wheat products. If you’re making whole grain bread, you’re using hard wheat and you’re making a flour that absorbs and holds a lot of moisture. As you add the bran back into the flour to make it whole grain, you further increase the capacity of that flour to absorb water,” Sneller said. “When you’re making bread that is great, but when you’re making cookies or crackers, increasing that water holding capacity by adding the bran is actually bad for making products with the right shape, texture and size. Adding the bran for whole grain makes less desirable soft wheat products.”

While consumers are interested in eating more whole grain, no one is going to buy a misshapen Oreo with a funny texture. For this reason, Sneller is looking for a soft red winter wheat variety that does not hold as much water, which would allow it to be used for making whole grain cookies and crackers. In addition to this trait, the wheat variety would also need all of the necessary characteristics to be profitable for Ohio’s wheat farmers to produce. Finding such a variety is daunting, at best -- akin to locating a very small needle in a very large pile of straw.

This numbers game involves screening a myriad of wheat varieties, selecting some, growing them, and evaluating them for possession of the necessary traits. This process takes years of screening and testing, though it has been sped up in recent years with technology using molecular markers to narrow down the list of potential varieties to plant in test plots. From there, the new harvesting equipment will come into play. 

“The Oho Small Grains Marketing Program and the Ohio Seed Improvement Association have awarded us a grant to buy a combine for our research station up in northwest Ohio. With that combine, we can increase the lines of wheat that we can test. The combine we will be buying has an automatic weigh unit so one person can combine a plot and it measures how much grain, the moisture and test weight and puts that information in a computer and dumps the grain. One person can do well over 1,000 plots a day with this combine,” Sneller said. “When they’re done harvesting, the data is already colleted in the computer. Right now we have four people up there, and they can do about 600 plots a day. Now we can send one person and they can do 1,200 in a day, if not more. The benefit of this, of course, is that we can look at more lines of wheat, which gives us a better chance of finding new varieties and it will make us more competitive with getting grants.”

In short, the new combine increases the odds of finding the right wheat variety for making a healthier Oreo.

“If we can allow the industry to make these whole grain products better, cheaper and more acceptable to consumers, then the consumers will eat more whole grain, and that is good for them,” Sneller said. “So maybe someday they will be able to eat a whole grain Oreo that tastes just like the original Oreo and is good for them. I don’t think there is much we can do for the white icing inside, though.”

 

Matt Reese writes for Ohio’s Country Journal and lives in Baltimore, Ohio. For questions or comments, please contact him at mkcreese@yahoo.com. This column was brought to you by Ohio’s agricultural organizations.