Corn ethanol is a pay day loan, it might tide you over the week-end but it's no way to run the family budget. It is not politically sustainable in the US in the face of a bad harvest ahref=http://www.icis.com/blogs/biofuels/archives/ 2007/05/just-how-politically-sustainab.html/rel=ur l2html-12942http://www.icis.com/blogs/biofuels/arc hives/2007/05/just-how-politically-sustainab.html/ >
The US may traditionally over produce corn, which may be a good thing, in terms of making sure that Americans don't starve, and ensuring that there is at least some available to feed people through things like UN food aid in drought regions. But if we find another use for corn then a number of things happen assuming that the volume of corn grown in the world is fixed.
The price of corn is going to rise, this will make other crops more attractive as they substitute for corn. This means that the area of land planted will increase. Farming probably happens on fairly sustainable land, if new areas are planted these will be more marginal and put increasing pressure on fragile soils and water resources. The potential for desertification increases. Who has the first call on water hidden in aquifers, farmers or people? Oh and it will fuel inflation in the US http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/2007/03/19/is -inflation-coming-back/#comment-6255/ and that's worrying the US shop keeping community http://www.gmabrands.com/news/docs/NewsRelease.cfm ?DocID=1731/
Secondly, because the price of corn rises in the short term the UN and other aid agencies cannot afford to buy as much to feed to the starving...
I think we need to do a couple of things, in no particular order of importance:
Insulate more and make more efficient use of energy in our homes, offices, workplaces etc. Make more fuel efficient cars. Its not difficult, if the world auto industry can move to catalytic converters and fuel injection in a decade then it can start building more efficient cars in much less time.
Efficiency is at the crux of this problem. If we keep on running inefficient vehicles, then swapping to fuels from other sources is simply fuelling the addiction to badly designed engines http://www.icis.com/blogs/biofuels/archives/2007/0 5/biofuels-displace-traditional-1.html/
Trees might be a better bet as biofuel source....
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Beer might be selling well but Heiniken is worried URL: http://www.icis.com/blogs/biofuels/archives/2007/0 2/corn-ethanol-and-pricing.html />
Corn ethanol is a pay day loan, it might tide you over the week-end but it's no way to run the family budget. It is not politically sustainable in the US in the face of a bad harvest ahref=http://www.icis.com/blogs/biofuels/archives/ 2007/05/just-how-politically-sustainab.html/rel=ur l2html-12942http://www.icis.com/blogs/biofuels/arc hives/2007/05/just-how-politically-sustainab.html/ >
The US may traditionally over produce corn, which may be a good thing, in terms of making sure that Americans don't starve, and ensuring that there is at least some available to feed people through things like UN food aid in drought regions. But if we find another use for corn then a number of things happen assuming that the volume of corn grown in the world is fixed.
The price of corn is going to rise, this will make other crops more attractive as they substitute for corn. This means that the area of land planted will increase. Farming probably happens on fairly sustainable land, if new areas are planted these will be more marginal and put increasing pressure on fragile soils and water resources. The potential for desertification increases. Who has the first call on water hidden in aquifers, farmers or people? Oh and it will fuel inflation in the US http://blogs.dailymail.com/donsurber/2007/03/19/is -inflation-coming-back/#comment-6255/ and that's worrying the US shop keeping community http://www.gmabrands.com/news/docs/NewsRelease.cfm ?DocID=1731/
Secondly, because the price of corn rises in the short term the UN and other aid agencies cannot afford to buy as much to feed to the starving...
I think we need to do a couple of things, in no particular order of importance:
Insulate more and make more efficient use of energy in our homes, offices, workplaces etc. Make more fuel efficient cars. Its not difficult, if the world auto industry can move to catalytic converters and fuel injection in a decade then it can start building more efficient cars in much less time.
Efficiency is at the crux of this problem. If we keep on running inefficient vehicles, then swapping to fuels from other sources is simply fuelling the addiction to badly designed engines http://www.icis.com/blogs/biofuels/archives/2007/0 5/biofuels-displace-traditional-1.html/
Trees might be a better bet as biofuel source....