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.

[P-40]

They assume that ethanol is the only nature-based solution to our energy problem

At current energy prices and with the current government interest in alternative fuels, there is no shortage of workable solutions available now and no shortage of private monies available now. If energy prices were to drop now, it would hurt the alternative fuels market but not necessarily doom its birth but if government interest were to go away, all bets are off.

[o_zarkman44]

Show us some real facts mr expert.

[P-40]

which is non-renewable in these areas

Groundwater is always renewable, even in the desert. The question is the time it takes for renewal.

[P-40]

the left simply doesn't like that people drive their own cars.

True, or at least they don't want other people to drive their own cars. :)

If fuel prices were to stay high, it would cut a slight amount of the traffic in the cities and curb some development, which I assume is what these people want...but the political will to leave fuel prices high is just not there. Cutting city traffic is going to take other measures.

[CedarDave]

Groundwater is always renewable, even in the desert. The question is the time it takes for renewal.

So true -- but renewable in geologic time frames (tens to hundreds thousand years) isn't going to cut it for today's economy.

[thackney]

How much does the military subsidy cost to protect foreign oil fields so we can import oil?

If we became energy independent, how many aircraft carriers would we sell? How many tanks? How many divisions would we disband? The military cost is not because of oil. That said we could easily get all our energy needs from North America and we should. But we allow environmentalists and democrats to hold this country hostage.

[o_zarkman44]

Pimental study was picked out of about 10 studys of ethanol. His calculations?hehe were the lowest of the 10 studys. So basing everything about ethanol on the lowest calculations of 10 studys could perhaps mean that Pimental is off by 90%. And his synopsis of the study he set out to prove was that ethanol was not feasable. So being a biased researcher, naturally his summary will support his theory.

Why should anyone believe 10% of the people are the only ones who are right and everyone else is stupid?

[antiRepublicrat]

Idiot. We don't have a global production problem, we have local production and/or distribution problems, usually caused by socialists, dictators and warlords.

[antiRepublicrat]

Ethanol is going to rate right up there with CNG, battery powered cars, hybrids, and every other mileage miracle like gas line magnets

Ethanol can be fun.

[RedMonqey]

Fuel from ethanol is a lousy idea.

I wish it was otherwise because we are farmers and we would make some greenbacks from it but for a world that needs food more than fuel, it has major problem.

Why? Because the land, more specifically the soil can and will be worn out by overuse. The same cornstalks and uneatable "weeds" you say it will use are very important to provide the nutrients for the next crop.
Take that away each harvest and soon you will have a desert.
You say add fertilizer? Then you're back to petroleum because oil is a major ingredient in today's fertilizers.

Coal and oil sands are the way to go. They have no more important use than to make petroleum based products.

[from occupied ga]

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

So instead you want to send even more to them.

[from occupied ga]

And ethanol has a net gain over fossil fuel. Ethanol is cleaner burning and non cancerous compared to oil additives

This is your unsubstantiated opinion. You'll have to pardon me while I ignore it.

[calljack]

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.



Lets see here, I guess that 25 gallon tank could be on any car but it must be an SUV.

If we are now growing only 1/6 of the corn that it would require I suggest we grow more corn.

Next...

[from occupied ga]

Why should anyone believe 10% of the people are the only ones who are right and everyone else is stupid?

So in your world, majority determines scientific truth? Thermodynamics isn't determined by popular vote. If a million tree huggers fervently belive something and the objective reality is the opposite of their belief, their belief is still wrong.

[RedMonqey]

I forgot to add the inherent instability of grain markets.

Ethanol is completely unstable supply for a constant (and growing) demand.



You think oil from the middle east is bad, just wait and see how much grain speculators will drive the price of a gallon of fuel when there's a drought, flood, frost, early snow etc. Anything that will adversely effect food production we don't feel now because there is tremendous "slack" in the system now.

[P-40]

but renewable in geologic time frames

It always makes more sense to use the argument that it will take X number of years to replace the water with a given rainfall and a given amount of pumping...because people know intutively that the water will come back...and they quit following the argument when they hear that it will never come back.

That said, if the primary means of growing a crop is a slow replacement water source...then that is a bad place to grow crops.

[P-40]

The military cost is not because of oil.

Saudi Arabia.

[cripplecreek]

Like I said before, you people will just have to suck it up and cope because the plants are being built all across the country as I write this and none of your arguments seem to be stopping them.

[o_zarkman44]

I agree. Becoming energy independent does not sell as much military hardware. But we still need the military to protect what Americans have worked hard for, and protect our way of life from 6th century barbarians.

We truely have the means to become energy independent here. We have the oil and the coal and the ethanol and the solar and the wind and the uranium we need to produce as much energy as we want to use. It all comes with a cost.

And the cost becomes more evident with every passing day that the envirowackos block those common sense methods that could negate the entire mid east's importance to our survival.

[thackney]

Look at it this way. The US refines about 15.7 million barrels of oil per day. Do you believe that single process is consuming 29 billion gallons of water a day? That California oil refining consumes 1.2 Trillion gallons of water a year?