Re: [A-List] Sake may power Japanese cars in the future

[CeJ <jannuzi@xxxxxxxxx>]

I read this as I look at the window and Fukui Prefecture's rice
paddies filled with WINTER WHEAT, which will be harvested before the
rainy season sets in.

Only about 15% of the land in Japan is arable, and the biggest problem
is we live and produce and consume on that land too.

Rice paddies used for rice, depending on how they are fertilized, are
huge contributors to the greenhouse gas methane. They are also an
artificially extravagant waste of fresh water, and add to the river
pollution and soil erosion here (especially obvious at spring planting
time, when the paddies, connected to elaborate aquaducts and waterways
are flushed with water and the excess, often untreated, flows back
into the river systems).

The good side of them include that the paddies also serve as habitat
and food for a lot of waterfowl, insect and insect larvae, amphibians
(like frogs), turtles and some fish (killifish) and  crustaceans.
Especially true since in most of Japan there is only one crop of rice
and the paddies lie fallow for most of the year.

On the other hand, such areas would be even better for wildlife if
more of the paddies were converted to wetlands, fields and mixed
forests of the sort that have been almost completely eliminated with
industrial farming, development and urbanization.

I would have thought the shochu and awamori would make better fuel than sake'.

There is an interesting show in Japan where a crew drive a 'stock' car
retrofitted with solar power and an electric motor around the
archipelago. Sake' is used to fuel conversation when they invariably
make camp at sundown, wherever they might be.

CJ