Posted on 07/18/2012 2:03:37 PM PDT by CutePuppy
The head of the world's largest food producer believes high prices are due to the growing of crops for biofuels.
"The time of cheap food prices is over," says Nestle chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe.
He is highly critical of the rise in the production of bio-diesel, saying this puts pressure on food supplies by using land and water that would otherwise be used to grow crops for human or animal consumption.
"If no food was used for fuel, the prices would come down again - that is very clear," he says.
"We are now in a new world with a completely different level of food prices because of the direct link with fuel," he says.
He says biofuels are only affordable because of the high subsidies they receive, particularly in the US.
"It is absolutely unacceptable and cannot be justified," he says.
"There is one demand that I have, and that is not to use food for fuel."
Water crisis
Mr Brabeck-Letmathe says politicians have not understood that the food market and the oil market are the same - they are both calorific markets.
"The only difference is that with the food market you need 2,500 calories per person per day, whereas in the energy market you need 50,000 calories per person," he says.
When politicians said they wanted to replace 20% of fossil fuels with biofuels, it meant increasing the production of crops threefold, according to Mr Brabeck-Letmathe.
< snip > .....
Agriculture uses 70% of world's water consumption and the public must be made aware of the inefficient usage of this precious resource, Mr Brabeck-Letmathe adds.
"It takes about 4,600 litres of water to produce one litre of pure ethane oil if it comes from sugar, and it takes 1,900 litres of water if it comes from palm oil," he says.
.....
(Excerpt) Read more at m.bbc.co.uk ...
Love the proverb: “Live as if you will die tomorrow, plant as if you will live forever.”
It's a tremendous Swiss-based conglomerate - the largest food company in the world and one of the most admired, with more than 230,000 employees in nearly 500 locations worldwide, high quality diversified food and pharmacological products and great IT technology behind it that took them several years to fully implement.
"Six worldwide corporate brands, Nestlé, Nescafe, Nestea, Maggi, Buitoni and Friskies contributed about 70% of the company's total sales, with the Nestlé brand itself contributing 40%. In addition to these brands, the Company has a broad portfolio of brands including Libby's fruit juices, Perrier water, San Pellegrino water, Arrowhead water, Osarka water, Alpo pet food, Ortega Mexican foods, PowerBar energy bars, Stouffer's prepared foods, Lean Cuisine prepared foods, DiGiorno pizza, Carnation beverages, Ovaltine beverages, Dreyer's ice cream, Haagen-Dazs ice cream, Gerber baby food, Butterfinger and Baby Ruth candies, Kit Kat chocolate bars..."
Not to worry.
Ethanol plants here in Indiana seem to be closing about as fast as K-marts did in the 90s.
Does catch one's eye, doesn't it? Interestingly, it's supposedly one of the pseudo-environmentalists' goals - "sustainability" - yet the actual results of their policies are exactly opposite to their stated goals.
I have seen American, British and Japanese fuel lines disintegrate under E10 (and in California, the methanol used before it). Until *very* recently, most fuel line was not rated for or particularly tolerant of ethanol.
Also, it’s not just “shitty Chinese engines” as both Bombardier and Mercury Marine have outright said for many of their models that any amount of alcohol can harm them.
Where are they sourcing their polymer parts from?
Chinese stuff is everywhere.
Some of the worst offenders are Weedeater - US engine, carbs from China.
I think I'm seeing a pattern here.
Nice pattern recognition. Good eye!
Other references, including photo proof:
http://www.floridasportsman.com/2012/07/02/ethanol-and-old-outboard-boat-engines/
http://www.fidosysop.org/1204/06/e-15-ethanol-gas-blend-coming-and-could-harm-your-engine/
http://www.rifleandrod.com/2012/07/ethanol-fuel-can-ruin-boat-motors/
Associated picture: http://www.rifleandrod.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/DSC0021.jpg
http://www.pensacolafishingforum.com/f67/my-ethanol-issues-118496/
Also, I have had to retire my former daily driver classic Honda motorcycle and buy something 20 years newer due to e10 gasoline constantly screwing up the carburetors by causing varnish and crap build up (among other problems) in them necessitating constant rebuilds. It has literally cost me thousands of dollars; this stuff is CRAP and the sooner it goes away the better.
I am seeing Gates and Dayco fuel lines lasting months before they begin to crack and check whether running gasoline or diesel.
I am also now seeing vapor lock in summer temperatures on carbed vehicles that I have owned and driven since the late ‘80’s pretty much unchanged.
We just got back from a trip to high altitudes in Colorado and we vapor locked frame mounted electric EFI pump repeatedly that is away from heat sources and below tank level.
And now the idiots at the EPA want to go from 10% ethanol to 15%.
Did you miss the part about “American, British and Japanese”?
My own personal experience has been with parts I know for a fact came from Japan or the US. And E10 destroys them too.
No mention of the drought that is hitting 26 states.
And those hoses are made in the US, not China, despite what I’m sure nascarnation will now claim.
The only ‘rubber’ hose I’ve seen hold up to ethanol without degrading significantly is that Goodyear lined (it used to have a blue inner layer, very obvious) stuff that AutoZone carried for a couple years: http://www.goodyearep.com/ProductsDetail.aspx?id=5144 I still have a stash of that for my vehicles, but that only takes care of connecting the fuel system components, not the components themselves.
100 LL AVGAS my friend. Take a 5 gallon jug to the little local airport and get it for your airboat.
Love to, but neither of my motorcycles will run for crap on 100LL. Like many engines, they will start having harmful deposits form in the combustion chamber (and elsewhere) if you run more than 87 octane in them as they are optimized for that grade of fuel. Can’t use it in either of my gasoline powered cars due to their catalytic converters and my truck is (fortunately) diesel.
Yes! High percentage losses in both energy storage and distribution.
Which makes wind completely unsuitable form of energy generation ((along with many other problems related to generation of energy itself, and "unsustainable," to boot, due to the unreliability and unpredictability of the wind stream itself).
Solar can be useful and less expensive, but not as a large "farm" or steam generator (storage and distribution issues) but as niche local energy generator, with panels nearby or attached to buildings where the power is needed.
It ruins small engines, mowers, boats etc. It gets crappy mileage. We can only use ethanol on base. I’ve monitored the mileage and its about 5 MPG less with sugar gas.
Just because an assembly is made in America, Britain, or Japan doesn't mean it doesn't have Chinese polymers in it. Either the raw material or the finished part.
That's how the industry works these days.
I don’t understand your comment about diesel fuel lines.
Biodiesel doesn’t contain ethanol, it has soybean oil.
Blaming China won’t work here - I know for a fact that some of these things that E-10 has eaten have been all-USA sourced.
And that doesn’t even begin to explain how US and Japanese aluminum and steel (which could not have come from China due to their age) get etched by this shit.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
