Ethanol: Feed a Person for a Year or Fill Up an SUV?

http://www.streetsblog.org/2007/03/07/ethanol-feed-a-person-for-a-year-or-fill-up-an-suv/ ^

[linuxster]

Lester Brown, the president of the Earth Policy Institute wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece that the amount of grain needed to make enough ethanol to fill a 25-gallon SUV tank "would feed one person for a full year. If the United States converted its entire grain harvest into ethanol, it would satisfy less than 16 percent of its automotive needs."

Brown said the ongoing ethanol boom in the U.S. was "setting the stage for an epic competition. In a narrow sense, it is one between the world's supermarkets and its service stations." More broadly, "it is a battle between the world's 800 million automobile owners, who want to maintain their mobility, and the world's two billion poorest people, who simply want to survive."

Using food to make fuel bothers many analysts, and whether their affiliation is liberal or conservative doesn't seem to matter. Dennis Avery, director of global food issues at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think-tank in Washington, D.C., has concerns that are remarkably similar to Brown's. A few days after Brown's piece appeared in the Post, Avery published a paper showing that ethanol simply cannot provide enough motor fuel to make a significant difference in America's fuel consumption. And like Brown, he laid bare the essential question: food or fuel?

[RightWhale]

The US pays farmers to not farm. Much farmable land is not being farmed. Nobody is starving due to general corn shortages.

[xcamel]

Not yet... but the food/fuel issue has started a very serious upward death spiral...

[RightWhale]

Corn alcohol has already peaked and is falling out of favor. It won’t survive as an alternative fuel without continued subsidy.

[mtbopfuyn]

This should be fun. I’ll bring the popcorn... oh, never mind.

[Old Sarge]

"it is a battle between the world's 800 million automobile owners, who want to maintain their mobility, and the world's two billion poorest people, who simply want to survive."

The Left will not give up their precious limousines. If the poor are starving, Let Them Eat Cake.

[coloradan]

What’s more important, feed a small village for a year, or Al Gore flies his future private corn-ethanol-powered-jet across the globe telling people how global warming will cause starvation to the worlds poor?

[aruanan]

My niece told me that their teacher in high school was showing them a movie about not eating meat and telling them how many loaves of bread could be made with the grain that it takes to feed one steer. I told her to ask the teacher who wants to eat hundreds of loaves of bread and say that's why we pay a lot more per pound for good beef than for a loaf of bread.

On a related note: I have a cousin who went through the whole vegetarianism thing. She wouldn't eat anything "that has a face." After years she started eating fish sandwiches. Now my dad reported to me that he recently saw her chowing down on a massive piece of prime rib! She's finally come to her senses.

[G8 Diplomat]

[B4Ranch]

If we look further into algae, we might have the answer.

There's Oil in That Slime (Algae)

[Hunterite]

Talk about screwing with the free-market. 1 acre producing food has much more value then a couple gallons of moonshine.

10 fold, 20 fold, 30 fold?

[Sacajaweau]

And when we have a drought? Do we eat dirt and/or walk?

[B4Ranch]

Corn alcohol fuels a bunch of the drunks.

[gridlock]

How about we eliminate all subsidies and mandates and let the market decide how much food and how much fuel is produced?

[RightWhale]

It won’t be available for $2 a gallon for that crowd.

[Pontiac]

How about we eliminate all subsidies and mandates and let the market decide how much food and how much fuel is produced?

You won’t get many political contributions from Archer Daniels Midland executives with that kind of attitude.

[Pontiac]

Talk about screwing with the free-market. 1 acre producing food has much more value then a couple gallons of moonshine.

But a couple of gallons of moonshine will make a heck of a party;)

[Balding_Eagle]

We can do both.

We are such a wealthy nation, with such successful agricultural system that not only can we do both, we can produce large amounts of ‘natural’ foods, which require twice as much land as other foods. We can also ‘burn’ our corn for fuel.

AND have food left over.

[Balding_Eagle]

We have had drought every year for the past 100 years, and with a couple of exceptions, we still produced surpluses.

Hats off to one of the most resourceful groups in the history of the world, the American Farmer!

[festus]

The nice thing about ethanol is you can make it from darn near anything organic.

So we can solve the homeless problem and end world hunger and solve the fuel needs by using all the grumblers as a fuel source.

;-)