Bio-fuels horrors
by Michael Barry
Issue date: 9/8/08 Section: Opinion
Lately, I haven't been able turn on the TV without being bombarded with adds and campaigns for producing alternative forms of energy.
While I'm all for keeping the planet clean, one of these projects I find absolutely useless to the point of being destructive. I'm talking about the idea of corn-based biofuel.
Why not grow fuel just as we grow food? Why not take the energy in corn, convert it to ethanol, and pour it into our SUVs?
The basic concept appears to be a responsible endeavor. However, let's look deeper into the economics.
The U.S. Farm Bill says corn ethanol producers have to be paid 45 cents to the gallon in tax credit. Because of this, the price of grains such as corn and wheat are rising dramatically.
This, in turn, is pressing more farmers to plant corn, as opposed to other grains such as wheat, contributing to an upward spiral of grain prices.
It then causes massive economic problems for developing economies.
"After decades in the doldrums, food prices have been soaring this year, causing more misery for the world's poor than any credit crunch," says Fred Pearce, Yale professor.
"The geopolitical shockwaves have spread round the world, with food riots in Haiti, strikes over rice shortages in Bangladesh, tortilla wars in Mexico, and protests over bread prices in Egypt."
The Washington Post agreed: "Last year, the World Bank said there were one billion people living under the previous one- dollar-a-day poverty mark."
Robbin S. Johnson, distinguished McKnight University Professor of Applied Economics, says, "Put starkly: Filling the 25-gallon tank of a sport utility vehicle with pure ethanol would require more than 450 pounds of corn, enough calories to feed one poor person for a year."
The bottom line is that corn ethanol is devastating economies and societies of developing countries around the world.
Also, the process of creating corn ethanol is so costly and inefficient that the idea of using such a product to replace oil is ridiculous.
If we follow this route to energy independence, we might be "green'. But we'll also be obscenely poor, the cause of international instability, some of it bloody, perpetuators of poverty ,and perhaps the instigators of an international famine.
While I'm all for keeping the planet clean, one of these projects I find absolutely useless to the point of being destructive. I'm talking about the idea of corn-based biofuel.
Why not grow fuel just as we grow food? Why not take the energy in corn, convert it to ethanol, and pour it into our SUVs?
The basic concept appears to be a responsible endeavor. However, let's look deeper into the economics.
The U.S. Farm Bill says corn ethanol producers have to be paid 45 cents to the gallon in tax credit. Because of this, the price of grains such as corn and wheat are rising dramatically.
This, in turn, is pressing more farmers to plant corn, as opposed to other grains such as wheat, contributing to an upward spiral of grain prices.
It then causes massive economic problems for developing economies.
"After decades in the doldrums, food prices have been soaring this year, causing more misery for the world's poor than any credit crunch," says Fred Pearce, Yale professor.
"The geopolitical shockwaves have spread round the world, with food riots in Haiti, strikes over rice shortages in Bangladesh, tortilla wars in Mexico, and protests over bread prices in Egypt."
The Washington Post agreed: "Last year, the World Bank said there were one billion people living under the previous one- dollar-a-day poverty mark."
Robbin S. Johnson, distinguished McKnight University Professor of Applied Economics, says, "Put starkly: Filling the 25-gallon tank of a sport utility vehicle with pure ethanol would require more than 450 pounds of corn, enough calories to feed one poor person for a year."
The bottom line is that corn ethanol is devastating economies and societies of developing countries around the world.
Also, the process of creating corn ethanol is so costly and inefficient that the idea of using such a product to replace oil is ridiculous.
If we follow this route to energy independence, we might be "green'. But we'll also be obscenely poor, the cause of international instability, some of it bloody, perpetuators of poverty ,and perhaps the instigators of an international famine.
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