Ethanol could leave the world hungry

Cnn.com ^ | 8-16-06 | Lester Brown

[Hydroshock]

The growing myth that corn is a cure-all for our energy woes is leading us toward a potentially dangerous global fight for food. While crop-based ethanol -the latest craze in alternative energy - promises a guilt-free way to keep our gas tanks full, the reality is that overuse of our agricultural resources could have consequences even more drastic than, say, being deprived of our SUVs. It could leave much of the world hungry.

We are facing an epic competition between the 800 million motorists who want to protect their mobility and the two billion poorest people in the world who simply want to survive. In effect, supermarkets and service stations are now competing for the same resources.

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This year cars, not people, will claim most of the increase in world grain consumption. The problem is simple: It takes a whole lot of agricultural produce to create a modest amount of automotive fuel.

The grain required to fill a 25-gallon SUV gas tank with ethanol, for instance, could feed one person for a year. If today's entire U.S. grain harvest were converted into fuel for cars, it would still satisfy less than one-sixth of U.S. demand.

[hlmencken3]

Ethanol process uses less than 4 gallons water for each gallon of ethanol produced.

By contrast:

http://www.ci.lincoln.ne.us/city/pworks/water/funfacts/trivia.htm

"It takes 1,851 gallons of water to refine one barrel of crude oil."

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Wife's relatives farm about 1,000 acres. They get government checks for their set aside land, a subsidy check when their corn and beans are sold below a posted price, checks for bug infestations, the chickadee checkoff, etc., etc...

[from occupied ga]

for some strange reason not all my reply was posted What I said was Think of all of the useful things that could be done with the moeny being wasted on promoting ethanol as a motor fuel. Ethanol belongs in bourbon.

[Dr. Ed Bravo]

Dave, this thread may interest you. Can you add anything new?
Thanks!

[P-40]

Think of all of the useful things that could be done with the moeny being wasted on promoting ethanol as a motor fuel.

True, we could be sending it to the Saudis, or to Chavez, or to Iran, or to...

[thackney]

Sorry but that statistic is no where near true. I've worked in Refineries in the middle of the desert. Our water supplies were extremely limited. No way that is true.

[hlmencken3]

Thanks for the info. I'll check further.

[agere_contra]

Subsidising[sp] ethanol

It's not a [sp] on this side of the Atlantic :0)

[antiRepublicrat]

We have had ethanol available at the pumps in my area for many years (central Illinois) and it's cheaper because of federal subsidies.

Look to the future, hopefully run by conservatives. Increased ethanol use vastly increases the demand for corn. Farmers produce as much corn as they can, but because of the high demand they can get good prices for it. The corn subsidy dies. This larger-scale ethanol system becomes self-sufficient (profitable) and no longer requires federal money to exist.

This can be a winning formula in the end, if the government pulls out of everything as soon as possible.

[SpinnerWebb]

I wasn't aware that people ate a lot of corn stalks and sugar cane.

Are you kidding? Those are the main ingredients in Colon Blow cereal:

[Old Professer]

"The grain required to fill a 25-gallon SUV gas tank with ethanol, for instance, could feed one person for a year."

Not a single animal on this earth can subsist, let alone thrive on a diet of strictly corn; it is nearly indigestible.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

In Journalism 101, that is called the "don't you feel guilty, now" line.

[o_zarkman44]

You are absolutely wrong.

Buying into oil company propaganda, and now the world hunger crisis will be the death of civilization according to your vision.

The African people who are hungry will remain so until they quit feuding and assume some senblence of civility. Hunger will be averted when poor families quit having 10 children. They are contributing to the problem because they don't have the means to feed a small family, let alone a large family.
And poor people do not have the money to pay for the grain. So the farmer should not give it away because he feels sorry for the hungry. If he gives his hard work away he too will become hungry.
Productive people contribute to healthy living. Unproductive people contribute to unhealthy living.
Productive people contribute to an economy. Unproductive people will always be a drain if they do not change their circumstances. For some, circumstance may be beyond their control. but much of the hunger could be averted if people would just act civilized and not line up for handouts.

And ethanol has a net gain over fossil fuel. Ethanol is cleaner burning and non cancerous compared to oil additives. We need the energy because we are the most productive nation in the world. without our contributions, the world economy will collapse.

[antiRepublicrat]

Combine harvesters need fuel

Biodiesel? It's already quite popular with farmers.

That's another problem I have with articles like this. They assume that ethanol is the only nature-based solution to our energy problem when that land can be used to produce biodiesel too, and the energy in - energy out equation for biodiesel more than twice that of ethanol's. And that is using soybeans -- rapeseed, palm oil or algae (grown on sewage treatment ponds) can boost that number dramatically.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Well put.

[Sen Jack S. Fogbound]

Are aware 80% of the corn harvested went for cattle food?

[o_zarkman44]

It takes the same amount of water to grow the corn as it does to grow a nice bluegrass yard. If we really wanted to save water we should quit watering yards when it is dry. Watering yards is the most useless waste of water we could engage in.. And then the energy wasted for the gasoline to keep the lawn mowed nicely. Talk about a negative impact!

And you are clammering about water usage for corn and ethanol. At least the end use is justified for food and energy from corn based energy..

Oh, and a byproduct of burning ethanol is water vapor, which is recycled into the atmosphere.

[CedarDave]

I wonder if the impact on the fresh water supply isn't a much bigger issue. We are never going to grow enough corn in the US to replace our use of oil. For ethanol to be viable, it will need to be made from something that is a much more prolific grower/producer than corn. In either case, the volume of water required is tremendous.

I believe the poster is talking about the water required to grow corn crops not water used in refining. As I have posted before on here, irrigation water is required in many Great Plains states (which admittedly are not currently large corn producing states) to grow grain crops. If those are converted to corn or non-productive lands are plowed and irrigated, the groundwater, which is non-renewable in these areas, will be further depleted. These are issues, especially for the people living there, that are being debated by resource managers, politicians and individuals affected.

See here for further information and my comments:

Ethanol: A Tragedy in 3 Acts

Ethanol Fueling a New Economy

[o_zarkman44]

So oil gets a nice subsidy and it is ok?
How much does the military subsidy cost to protect foreign oil fields so we can import oil? And watch oil company profits go into the tens of billions of dollars.

if we quit protecting foreign oil fields, how much would oil cost then.

ETHANOL DOESN'T NEED AN ESCORT. As there is more ethanol produced, subsidy will be reduced. At least the subsidy benefits AMERICANS.

[Koblenz]

I've been saying this forever, that the left simply doesn't like that people drive their own cars. I've said before that if we ever got a corn-based fuel, leftist would then say, "the amount of corn you used to go to the movies could have fed a family in Africa for 5 months" or whatever...