Battle Between Food and Fuel

[IndianaGreen]

Battle Between Food and Fuel

By Astrid Barnet

The production of ethanol from corn is extending intensively in the world. An example of this is that some 3.3 million hectares of land are used in the United States with a massive requirement of energy for fertilizers among others to produce 10.6 billion liters of ethanol which only provides 2 percent of gasoline a year for automobiles.

Recent data from the fifty states believe that the production of ethanol lacks net energy benefits and requires more fossil energy to produce it compared to the real product. To summarize, due to the relatively low energy density of ethanol, approximately three gallons of this product are needed to re place two of gasoline. However, the US production of ethanol will only benefit annually the giant agricultural businesses.

According to statistics, in 1980 taxes were introduced for this product, but made an exception of 54 cents for each gallon for those used in naphtha with 10 percent of ethanol, bringing along 10 billion dollars of subsidy for the Archer Daniels Midland Transnational. In 2003, over 50 percent of the US ethanol refineries belonged to agricultural groups and in 2006, 80 percent of them were in the hands of corporations with some 556 million dollars in projected earnings, benefiting the largest producers.

<snip>

Summing up, in the battle between food and fuel, the poor and those that suffer from hunger in the developing countries, the prices of food will remain at the mercy of the empire for the large population groups.

Proof of this is the increase in the prices of corn which, proportionately rose in a recent increase (400 percent) of the price of tortilla in Mexico, member of NAFTA and as is evident, also subjected to the commercial dictates of Washington.

http://www.periodico26.cu/english/opinion/food-fuel121407.htm

[fenriswolf]

1. just another fuel they can regulate

also a way to further control population growth by using food to create fuel in a world where food is scarce for the majority of the population.

[sam sarrha]

2. one SUV tank of ethanol ..uses enough corn to feed a starving African for a year. not efficient

[sailor65]

3. Not to mention

the enormous amount of water it takes to produce it.

[AdHocSolver]

4. Turning corn into ethanol is as effective in saving oil as is using gasoline to put out a fire.

I have known for years that ethanol in gasoline reduces a car's gasoline mileage. On a trip this past summer, I calculated mileage when using gasoline without ethanol (purchased in small towns along the way) with the usual mileage I get in the "big" city, where all the gas contains ethanol.

My car got three to four MORE miles per gallon WITHOUT ethanol in the gas. I figured that I have to buy an extra gallon of gas containing ethanol per tankful to go the same miles as my car can go without ethanol in the gas. (I drive a compact car with a 13 gallon tank, 12 gallons useable.) The MPG of a previous car that I drove worked out about the same. There is NO savings of oil nor a reduction in greenhouse gases by using ethanol.

Moreover, since corn is a food staple, converting it into ethanol reduces the corn supply for food. This reduced corn supply is the reason that dairy prices have risen sharply this past year. Also, agribusinesses are switching from growing soybeans and other grains to growing corn since it is more profitable, further reducing the food supply and causing price rises.

So producers of products from corn are now importing corn and other grains for food usage. One country we import grain from is China, the country that sent us grain tainted with toxic melamine.

The oil companies tell the public how much they are doing to save oil and help the climate by using ethanol which is a total lie. They do not take credit for the rise in food prices which happens to be the case. The agribusinesses likewise tell us how they are "saving the planet" by making ethanol.

They are all making huge profits by ripping off the people as they poison the planet. Anthropologists of the future (if humankind survives this era) will note how the once great empire of America was destroyed from within by the greed and corruption of unregulated capitalism.