Several items in this blog is wrong. Not all E coli are “killer” bacteria. Many are benign gut organisms but a few are pathogenic such as the 0157:H7 known for Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome and 0104:H4 (enterohemmorhagic strain leading to the HUS)in Germany. E. coli is a marker for aquatic environmental marker for sewage contamination.

It has low water and fertilizer requirements. It’s a perennial and only requires a bit of fertilizer while getting established. It’s one of the grasses of the Great Plains so it is well adapted to the US climate.

It has an extensive root system and fixes significant carbon underground with its root system, so it helps to pull carbon out of the atmosphere.

It will grow in very marginal land, such as ‘burned out’ cotton fields and improves the soil to that later the soil can be returned to food/fiber use.

It’s probably going to grow in areas that are ‘on their way out’ as climate change moves land from agricultural to desert. Perhaps the last commercial use for transitional land.

It can be grown in swaths between other crop fields as a soil/fertilizer/water runoff trap.

It can be cut much like cutting hay, dried and transported easily.

There’s a new ‘geo-engineered’ variety which remains in a juvenile, pre-seed state and produces more sugar.

Lots to love about switchgrass.