Biofuel and ethanol as energy is a huge and immoral boondoggle.
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The Food Crisis
Food Crisis. That’s a scary term for anyone. In America we are affluent enough that it is a financial inconvenience; but to the third world it is a matter of life and death. People in the third world last year were spending 75% of their income on food and prices for staples have skyrocketed. They now need 150% of their income to provide the same subsistence level. The math does not work. People eating two bowls of whatever the cheapest nutrition they could afford last year are now down to one bowl, one meal per day. That is only one meal away from starvation.
Ethanol and The Food Crisis
The problems of the Global food crisis are many fold: economic, political and distributional among others. These things are too complex and large for individuals to affect change. The 800-pound gorilla in the living room no one talks about is ethanol. Ethanol in this country is made from corn. The conversion of this major food staple to fuel is one of the largest contributors to the current food crisis. Many acres of wheat are being turned over to corn production because corn is such a valuable cash crop for ethanol production. This is removing valuable wheat and corn sources from the food chain. Market forces are diverting dietary staples away from the market for food in favor of the riches to be found in biofuel. Suppose you were hungry and had only a sandwich a day to eat. Suddenly someone in an affluent country found a way to run their cars on sandwiches; and (overnight) you couldn’t get your daily sandwich because someone more fortunate felt they needed it for fuel. “Hey I’m sorry but I need that sandwich so I can drive my car.” This is the choice we make by embracing the use of ethanol when we should be looking elsewhere for energy solutions. That we in America are about to embark on the mass use of this type of fuel is unconscionable.
It Is Not Even a Good Alternative
Ethanol production is leading to worldwide environmental degradation through clear-cutting of additional land to grow more corn. Ethanol can be made from grasses and other sources but corn is the most cost effective source crop in America. Ethanol is touted as more environmentally friendly than gasoline due to reduced co2 emissions but the required use of additional energy to create ethanol from raw materials practically cancels out the reduced emissions savings. In addition studies have shown that ethanol burns 30% faster than petroleum. Well-intentioned people such as touring musicians with a green agenda have fallen into the trap of thinking biofuel is a good way to go green. All in all it is not a good solution for solving our energy crisis.
What Can We Do?
What can Americans do about it? Business is virtually unaffected by legal, political, or most other kinds of pressure. Business understands and answers to one stimulus, the bottom line. The only way anyone has of making their wishes known to business, the only way we have as individuals of voting on what business does is with our wallets. The recent greening of business is not the result of altruism on the part of business; it is businessmen knowing green is what people are demanding. That’s fine, we have affected change in that arena and hopefully will continue on that path. We can do the same with ethanol. People should not buy it. Period. That is the only way forces driving its use will look elsewhere for an energy solution. We can also do whatever possible to raise awareness of ethanol's effect on the food crisis by talking about it with others, e-mailing this site to others, and signing the petitions on this site. We need to end this misguided attempt of replacing one problem with another equally or even more dangerous one.
Basic Freedom
America has the reputation of standing for freedom. What freedom is more basic than freedom from hunger if not starvation? We cannot allow the lifestyles we lead to impact so obviously the basic needs of the rest of the world. We need to stop the use of ethanol. Lobbying is one answer but business will out spend any lobbying effort with their own. We need to affect a grass roots change. People who are unaware of or choose to ignore the crisis we are helping create need to be informed.