Free Republic

The long-tortured farm bill cleared Congress Tuesday, ending a two year struggle that split the old farm-food coalition as never before and dramatized the growing isolation of agriculture and rural America in an ever more urban House. Written off as dead just months ago, the giant five-year measure won final approval from the Senate on a 68-32 roll call and goes next to President Barack Obama for his signature.

Exerpt From The Editorial: Two researchers who concluded it takes more energy to make ethanol than the corn-based fuel contains are guilty of "garbage in, garbage out." Their research is misleading at best, dishonest at worst. David Pimental of Cornell University and Tad Patzek of Berkeley have done little more than recycle warmed over criticism of ethanol, most of which has been discredited by several other university and USDA studies. While Pimental and Patzek claim it takes 29 percent more fossil energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than the amount of fuel the process produces, more credible studies found...