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.
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(Excerpt) Read more at m.bbc.co.uk ...
Unfortunately, the administrations and Congress-critters of both parties think that this kind of pseudo-"environmentalism" is now required, in addition to serving the wishes of their subsidies-seeking "special interest groups."
Not to mention that such use of vast horizontal space - required for biofuels, wind and solar “farms” - is not in the least “sustainable,” as the new “environmental” buzzword (”sustainability”) claims.
Follow da money - Ethanol is ruining car engines, and the EPA or DOE or both, want the % of ethanol in gasoline to be doubled - so that’s one way to ground a whole lot of people.
Then why did I just read a story mentioning 8% of the vehicles at a recent wholesale auction had over 300,000 miles?
“Then why did I just read a story mentioning 8% of the vehicles at a recent wholesale auction had over 300,000 miles?”
Do you know the history of those engines? Were they the original engines? Were they rebuilt, or what?
I’m not so sure this is a terrible thing. To break the backs of the OPEC cartels and the terrorists they fund, we need expensive food, expensive metals/construction materials, cheap petroleum, a strong US dollar, and political/military unrest throughout the middle east.
No I don’t but realistically how many cars get rebuilt engines these days?
One other bit of evidence: the average age of cars on the road has hit an ALL TIME HIGH at 10.8 years.
Cars (and engines) are lasting longer than ever.
Not to defend “biofuels,” but this just isn’t true. World production of grains is at an all-time high and biofuels are just a rich politician’s hobby, representing a miniscule fraction of productive capability.
It’s like saying gas is expensive because NASCAR wastes a lot of it.
I love Nestle chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe. Nestle does not give quarterly earnings “guidance,” but when you travel the world their products are always there. Nestle is not listed on the NY stock exchange, but Americans can buy the stock on the pink sheets in an active market. Nestle does not want to bother with the onerous reporting for US listed companies.
Peter is absolutely right, but he neglects to point out that the Africans were doing pretty well and were increasing food production until the respective States started to confiscate the land and “redistribute” the wealth.
because law be dammed. I pull up to the collector/offroad unleaded pump and fill my 2002 Chev van with non-corn fuel.
I’ll have 300,000 on it by November.
Rebuilding engines is hot business nowadays as it costs far less to rebuild ‘em than buy new. There are three companies right here in Riverside area that are going night and day rebuilding engines. I have several friends also rebuilding engines as a “hobby”.
Cars as a rule of thumb are lasting longer yes. I have two 13 year old cars, and an eleven year old car. None have been rebuilt at this point, and won’t be at our expense as SAAB cars aren’t being built anymore, and parts are already becoming scarce. We’ll be going to FORD when we need to replace these.
wind and solar “farms”
Isn’t another problem involve storing wind and solar power?
It is proven to be ruining smaller engines, such as those in boats, lawn equipment, and motorcycles. Some of them have their carbs destroyed, others are actually seeing destructive deposits in the engine proper.
It’s less of an issue with cars, but older carbureted cars are having fuel system problems as are older fuel-injected cars that are needing to have every rubber part (and the injectors) replaced because of it.
Not to defend “biofuels,” but this just isn’t true. World production of grains is at an all-time high and biofuels are just a rich politician’s hobby, representing a miniscule fraction of productive capability.
It’s like saying gas is expensive because NASCAR wastes a lot of it.
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NASCAR uses a percentage of fuel production that is miniscule in comparison to the percentage of our corn crop that is used for ethanol. Grain for ethanol is big business, both in the USA and in Brazil. If the ethanol mandate were repealed, the price of corn would plunge, and the prices of product using corn would also drop.
Let’s see...
Higher energy prices.
Higher food prices.
Higher unemployment.
Higher health care costs.
Higher taxes.
Higher debt and deficits.
I think I’m seeing a pattern here.
I bought an old big block IH 345 for a stock footage prop so I can tear down and and add on good enough to fool a cmaera for a small sum.
They don’t seem to bring anything in running condition from what I can see and worth more apparently for scrap broken down.
I haven’t fooled with it much due to the heat. It is in an old metal building with no power but here is the first clip of many.
Hmmmm...creating a food shortage....a nice way to keep "The Peeps" under control. No wonder the little Eichmann's in D.C. are pushing biofuels.
I’ve worked on OPE for decades and the biggest problem I see has little to do with ethanol and a lot to do with sh!tty Chinese quality engines. Especially the plastic fuel lines which seem to dissolve before your eyes.
I’ve got tractors, mowers, tillers, and trimmers that have run fine for 20+ years on E10 (yes we had essentially 100% E10 here in Indiana 20 years ago).
I agree with you that ethanol is not ruining car engines, but the ethanol requirements are distorting the food and energy markets. Of course, government regulations always do that; this reg is particularly damaging, though.
I agree turning corn into fuel is nuts.
Now that the subsidies for domestic ethanol and tariffs on imported ethanol are gone, we’ll see a lot more ethanol from Brazilian sugar cane, I suspect.
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