Abstract
T ransformative approaches to agricultural research, policy, and practice could result in future agricultural landscapes that are very different from the present. The National Research Council (2010) report Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century recommends that incremental approaches to improving sustainability, which work within existing agricultural systems, be augmented by transformative approaches, which introduce and assess the possibilities for more dramatic change. Biofuels, environmental effects of agriculture, and farmer adoption of sustainable practices should be among the key considerations in transformative approaches to 21st century agriculture in the Corn Belt. BIOFUELS Biofuels have emerged as the leading non-nuclear alternative to fossil fuels (SEG 2007), and transformative approaches can provide information about the merits of different biofuels—corn ethanol compared with other feedstocks, including perennial grasses for cellulosic ethanol (Robertson et al. 2008; Jordan et al. 2007). Current agricultural and energy policy have provoked dramatic increases in corn and soybean production for biofuels (Sorenson and Daukas 2010; Lubowski et al. 2008). With effective future commercial scale technologies, perennial grass feedstock for cellulosic ethanol may outperform corn ethanol in terms of net energy production, terrestrial carbon storage, and other ecosystem services (Simpson et al. 2008; Fargione et al. 2008).
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