China

So I'm back out on tour which means more blogging! Went to China late last night. China, Texas that is. After the show in Beaumont at the Vortex I went and crashed at my friend Herb's place in China. This morning he took me on a tour of his farm. They grow sun flowers and rice and grass and blueberries and a new crop called energy cane which is similar to sugar cane but is more easily converted to ethanol. Most american farmers have been making ethanol out of corn which really doesn't yield any significant energy savings because it uses just about as much fuel to make it as the end result produces. Apparently it also can't be transported in pipe lines necessitating shipment by trucks which burns a shit load of gas. Taking their cue from Brazil which is way ahead of the United States in this kind of stuff they're trying to produce ethanol in a much better fashion. The whole growing and converting thing should be up and running in a few years and hopefully will serve as a model of what can be done. I got to ride in the combine which is one scary and daunting piece of machinery. Herb also had a bio-diesel rig set up for which he gets restaurant grease and recycles it for fuel. The whole thing was pretty exciting to a city boy like me. All that stuff at the grocery down stairs from my apartment actually comes from somewhere...