Pipelines transporting carbon dioxide from Northwest Iowa ethanol plants to be sequestered underground in spent fracking holes are considered by the industry to be vital for its survival. Corn growers fear that without a designated “low-carbon” product they will be priced out of the fuel market.

Investors in the pipelines will capture federal tax credits that encourage carbon sequestration.

What direct benefit do farmers get from carbon capture? North Dakota State University Associate Professor David Ripplinger, who studies ethanol, has a hard time defining any. “It’s not as if there’s a futures market or a spot market and transparency of a price, let alone what it might be for a particular farmer or rancher.

“The ones who are investing billions of dollars are the ones who are going to benefit,” Ripplinger told the North Dakota Monitor.

The real price of corn has been flat, at best, since we watched the ethanol birthing amid the energy crisis of the 1970s. We are feeding more corn to more livestock than ever, and 40% of our national corn crop is distilled into ethanol. Production increases have so far outpaced demand, decade after decade, all the while squeezing out local farmers.

The farmer will get no premium for his corn because it is consumed at an ethanol plant pumping into a pipeline. He will get no carbon credit. He prays that artificially imposed federal mandates for blending corn ethanol with gasoline will keep some sort of floor under the market. Knock out 40% of your consumption and there is a big hole in Iowa.

That assumes no imminent alternatives. You hear talk about hydrogen from biomass, and green methanol. Where is it? We can see the ethanol plant steam cloud. We see no hydrogen biomass on the horizon. The investment, coupled with federal climate subsidy, is in old technology. The payoff is to keep corn prices under $5 per bushel.

Farmers know it. That’s why so many are skeptical of giving up control over their property to a pipeline company through eminent domain.

The problem is, it’s the only show around. When 40% of your corn is wrapped up in ethanol, and no viable alternatives are emerging for those acres, then you had better give way to the pipeline and the investors. If you want to be in livestock, you better sign a contract and hire yourself out to Iowa Select or Smithfield. It’s the system we have, all convoluted to where we capture the carbon and collect the manure but not the wealth. We primed the system through the farm bill, the latest iteration promising much more of the same. The investors must be served first. More corn. Cheap corn.

Support small grocers

Our friend (and shirttail cousin) Rita Schau of Sioux Foods in Sioux Rapids this week noted the closing of Laurens Food Pride. Many of us are old enough to remember Hakes Distributing of Laurens that served a wide network of independent grocers in rural Iowa. Hakes is history, and now the Laurens grocer finally follows.

That leaves Sioux Foods as the last of the small-town independent grocers. Storm Lake is fortunate to have several ethnic groceries — Latino, Asian and African — and we marvel at their resilience operating in the shadow of Fareway, Hy-Vee and Walmart.

The Schaus are committed to their community. They prove it by hanging in there through long hours and hard work. They provide a lifeline to elderly and those who can’t hop in the car for Storm Lake or Spencer. It is a community gathering point.

Laurens is a bit off the path. It’s a tough go for any independent business in the age of rural consolidation. At least Sioux Foods is on Hwy. 71, just up the road from the high school. It’s right on your way. The beer is cold and affordable. The meat is good as anywhere. You can get what you need. They had toilet paper when Walmart didn’t. Stop in. Support your local business when it is that convenient. Buy that Coke from Rita instead of the chain gas station.

You can get “sexy chicken” at Morelos Market in Storm Lake. Delicias Bakery offers a tremendous restaurant alongside groceries. Check them out, along with all the other interesting ethnic stores.

We can keep an independent grocer alive in Sioux Rapids or support an immigrant entrepreneur with just a simple thought of stopping in and buying something. People in Laurens will miss having a grocer, and yet more economic activity will flow out of town. We still have Sioux Foods while we can keep it. It just takes a thought.