A sustainable biomass industry for the North American Great Plains

Sustainable management of the world's land resources is a key to the provision of food for a more affluent global population and progress in other areas, such as improved water quality and mitigation of climate change. But the world's land resources are far too varied in their soils, native and managed vegetation, water resources and climatic norms and extremes to expect that a single, globally comprehensive strategy can be applied to meet such goals. Rather, lessons to guide programs aimed at achieving sustainability can be assembled from experience gained in discrete geographic, climatic and edaphic regions. One such region is the semiarid to subhumid North American Great Plains (hereafter NAGP), a region that since settlement has experienced many periods of economic boom and many of economic distress. Originally a grassland, its vulnerability to soil erosion, environmental problems associated with the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and the overuse of surface and ground water is typical of other important grasslands converted to agriculture in South America and in the European and central Asiatic regions of the former Soviet Union. In addition, there is reason to believe that many of these grassland regions, most located in continental interiors, may be further stressed by climate changes caused by rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. One action that can potentially contribute to climate change mitigation is the production of herbaceous biomass, for which the NAGP region is well suited. This paper reviews the geography, history and current condition of the NAGP and offers suggestions about how the agriculture, economy and environment of this and similar regions around the world can be made more sustainable and able to contribute to a reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and consequent global warming.