♦ nivek ♦ Posted April 23, 2008 Share Posted April 23, 2008 Ethanol subsidies starve poor kidsThe Free Liberal by Fred E. Foldvary "Land for growing food has always competed with land used to grow plants with other uses. Farmers who grow cotton could instead grow grains or fruits. Also, forest land has the alternative use as food crop land. These trade-offs are called opportunity costs. The economic cost of farmland is the value of the forests and wild grasslands that would otherwise be there. Likewise, the opportunity cost of a forest is the value of the land if used for housing, crops, and grazing. Recently a new opportunity cost has arisen, as crops such as corn and sugar can be grown for fuel rather than for food. This would not be harmful if not for government subsides for ethanol made of corn. The U.S. federal government subsidizes ethanol production at 51 cents per gallon. Farmers who used to grow corn for animal feed or human consumption now sell crops to biofuel distilleries. One-fifth of American grain is used for ethanol. Food prices almost doubled from 2005 to 2008, while the price of corn has tripled from $2 to over $6 per bushel." (04/22/08) http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/003309.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♦ nivek ♦ Posted April 23, 2008 Author Share Posted April 23, 2008 Are you stomping the environment flat?Reason by Ronald Bailey "Are you an ecological bigfoot? Various environmental groups now offer websites where you can supposedly find out. The site provided by the folks at Redefining Progress informs me that if everyone on the planet lived my lifestyle, we would need the resources of 6.5 Earths to supply everyone. I took the test again, this time selecting all the ecological choices, including living a 500-square-foot apartment filled with second-hand furniture in a large apartment building heated with biomass, using electricity generated by solar panels, equipped with low flow toilets and showers, buying all my food at farmers markets, planting my own garden fertilized by compost from my food scraps, eating a vegan diet, recycling all my paper, plastic, aluminum, glass and electronics, owning no car, never flying and traveling no more than 2,000 miles by bus or rail each year. If everyone lived like that we would only need 0.93 earths to accommodate everyone." (04/22/08) http://www.reason.com/news/show/126115.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♦ nivek ♦ Posted April 23, 2008 Author Share Posted April 23, 2008 Is organic food really healthier?AlterNet by Deborah Rich "Don't ask the US federal government whether there are any health benefits to eating organic food. It won't tell. No mere coincidence, then, that no pictures of farmers or farms (or fertilizers or pesticides) appear in the USDA food pyramid logo. The federal government encourages the consumption of more fruits, vegetables, and grains, but stops short of evaluating the farming systems that produce these same foods. An apple is an apple regardless of how it has been grown, the USDA food pyramid suggests, and the only take-home message is that we should all be eating more apples and less added sugars and fats. But this message may be too simplistic." (04/23/08) http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/81773/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♦ nivek ♦ Posted April 23, 2008 Author Share Posted April 23, 2008 Where's the food?Independent Institute by Alvaro Vargas Llosa "In the 1830s, Richard Cobden and John Bright started a campaign against the protectionist laws that were keeping food prices high in Britain. After sustaining abuse for many years, they persuaded the government in 1846 to repeal the infamous Corn Laws, a move that helped usher in a long period of prosperity. I have been thinking intensely about these 19th-century heroes lately. The world needs a new Anti-Corn Law League, the movement they founded, if it wants to put a stop to the madness of escalating food prices and save millions of people, from Haiti to Bangladesh and from Cameroon to the Philippines, from starvation." (04/23/08) http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=2177 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mentalhh Posted April 23, 2008 Share Posted April 23, 2008 Very true, and the whole thing about ethanol being a green fuel is absolute bullshit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouroboros Posted April 23, 2008 Share Posted April 23, 2008 I heard switch grass got a better return than corn as biofuel. Anyone know anything about that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Net Eng Posted April 24, 2008 Share Posted April 24, 2008 I heard switch grass got a better return than corn for biofuel. Anyone know anything about that? Switchgrass is much better Google Knows All Here in Michigan our beloved <ack> state government is doing all it can to promote corn growth for biofuel. I thinks it is unwise to use food crop for fuel. That sort of competition will eventually cause problems in general (especially when switch grass is better all the way around for biofuel). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouroboros Posted April 24, 2008 Share Posted April 24, 2008 Maybe I should get a farm. Produce large amounts of switch grass. And then start manufacturing electric generators made according to the Mighty Engine desing: http://www.angellabsllc.com/resourse.html. Just an idea. Here's the MYT engine, running: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Itl9ipaIJ_o...feature=related (Warning! It's loud!!!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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