Research has found a grass called miscanthus that can produce three times as much ethanol per acre as corn, and can be grown on much poorer land than that used for corn production. That sounds like good news, but I'm certain that there is something negative that I haven't thought about yet. Maybe I could produce this grass on my pasture instead of renting it out for cattle grazing. This grass has to be sprigged initially, but is a perennial so it would continue to grow from year to year. Still, it would reguire about 10% of the farmland in America to yield 20% of the transportation fuel the country uses. That would be OK if really poor land that is not productive now could be used. We are going to need all of the fuel we can get if we are going to maintain our current standard of living.

http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/08/0730miscanthus.html