[Nam Vet]

I read somewhere that sugar beets produce MUCH more ethanol per ton/acre. If that is true, why is that not planted more?

Nam Vet

[P-40]

If that is true, why is that not planted more?

I've heard that also and I'm sure there is a lot of truth to the statement. I think the reason you don't hear more about its use is more political than anything else. Anything involving sugar gets into some serious battles with the sugar industry and that industry is one convoluted mess of subsidies and trade barriers and special treatment. And because sugar can be used to make ethanol, all that mess becomes part of ethanol production.

[TKDietz]

Because sugar beats farming is not economically viable except for a a few small parts of the country. These are rather finicky plants and soil conditions and climate have to be just right to get really good yields. Also, sugar beats are kind of expensive to harvest and process. These things grow enormous tap roots and they are hard to get out of the ground. And it's not easy to dry them and store them for use as an ethanol feedstock later as is generally done with corn. Given the right conditions these beets will yield more ethanol per acre than corn, but it's just not economically viable to do it here. If it was, we'd see a lot of corn farmers switching to sugar beet farming. Beets get plenty of subsidies too, and they are a profitable crop in areas where they grow well. A very large percentage of the sugar sold in this country comes from beets. If these beet farmers could make more money selling their product to ethanol plants, they probably would do just that, but table sugar is more profitable for them.