Sugar cane for tobacco

TheInquiringEye
TheInquiringEye
Founding Member

Posted: Jul 14, 08 4:17am

I may be wong here, (I'm wrong alot) but isn't the ethanol production from sugar cane considerably better than it is from corn? And do you remember a couple years back, hearing from all those Southern farmers going broke from planting tobacco? Rumor had it that many were resorting to planting a more notorious smoking substance....Does sugar cane seem like an obvious solution, or once again, am I missing something?

JackieRodzinski

TheInquiringEye

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3 Comments // 3 Members
DrewFrancis
DrewFrancis
Founding Member

Posted: Jul 14, 08 4:29am

yes, sugar cane is a more efficient raw material, although sugar cane and corn represent less efficient methods that oil.

a significant way to be more efficient is to reduce household consumption. Air conditioning and heating are extremely wasteful.

TheInquiringEye
TheInquiringEye
Founding Member

Posted: Jul 14, 08 4:31am

Not in NYC!

TIE

DannyO
DannyO
Founding Member

Posted: Jul 14, 08 4:38am

I don't know about whether it's more efficient to produce ethanol from sugarcane than corn (I've heard that, but I haven't heard the science behind it) but there's another thing to consider: sugarcane and tobacco grow well in somewhat different climates. Sugarcane likes hot and wet climates, while tobacco flourishes in somewhat cooler and drier climates. Sugarcane will hardly grow at all unless given enough water to kill or stunt a tobacco plant. Thus it would be difficult to simply re-purpose tobacco fields to become sugarcane fields.