Farmer Speaks on the “Real Green Deal”

Here’s a farmer who wants to let us know about what he calls the “real green deal.”  He explains that in the course of a growing season, an acre of corn will absorb 11 tons of carbon dioxide and turn it into oxygen.  It’s true that green plants take in CO2, combined with water and sunlight, to produce carbohydrate and oxygen.

What he doesn’t seem to understand is that once that corn is eaten, say, by a cow, the carbohydrate is broken down within a few hours, re-releasing the initial CO2 into the atmosphere. This happens mainly through the metabolic cycle of the consumer, but also through the disintegration of the animal’s feces, as well as its body upon death. There is no escape.

When we eat beef, this breakdown is transferred from the cow to our own bodies, but, in all cases, it happens fairly soon after the corn is harvested and consumed.

The only valid way to sequester CO2 via plants is through the creation of products that are incorporated into buildings that will last many decades.

Readers who watch the video will wonder: does he appear to want to understand any of this?  He makes no effort to hide his disdain for the promoters of the Green New Deal, closing with, “Don’t listen to those over-educated idiots who don’t understand the cycle of life.”

Ouch.

Obviously, there are people with no education in science, and I don’t have a problem with that.  But would you want to go to a doctor with this level of ignorance, and the smug confidence that educated people are idiots?