Poor could lose out in world ethanol market
Lester Brown, the president of the Earth Policy Institute said yesterday that the increase in ethanol production around the world could one day hurt the world's poor as foodstuffs like corn and soybeans are turned into ethanol. Brown said, "This is shaping up as competition between the 800 million people in the world that own automobiles and the 2 billion low-income people in the world, many of whom are already spending over half their income on food."
One way the poor could be hurt, Brown said, is if the foodstuff prices rise as the commodities become more valuable. The grain-importing nations of Indonesia, Nigeria, Mexico and Egypt, are most vulnerable to an increase in prices, he said. Higher mileage vehicles, better hybrids and working cellulose ethanol production are some solutions Brown put forward.
[Source: Reuters Foundation]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Howard Lee Harkness 12:06AM (7/15/2006)
Ethanol is a lousy fuel.
Grain (including corn) is a lousy source of ethanol.
If grain is going to be used on any large scale for ethanol production, *everybody* (except ADM) loses.
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J 3:51PM (7/15/2006)
Biodiesel and ethanol is the answer, there is enough wasted biomass in the US to displace 30% of the current petroleum consumption. Gasoline accounts for 45% of petroleum and diesel 22%.
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AMcA 9:38PM (7/17/2006)
Biodiesel, however, is a fabulous fuel. Now if they'd just let us have diesel cars. I'd buy a modern diesel in a heartbeat.
Yeah, an A8 with 265 hp and 450 lb/ft o' torque! Running on biodiesl!
That's what I call low-guilt fun.
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AMcA 9:42PM (7/17/2006)
Let me amplify on posts 1 and 2: ethanol is indeed a lousy fuel. 25% more energy than you put into it.
Biodiesel, however, gets you 3-4 times as much energy as you put into it.
Translate that into crops grown on a given acre and the conclusion, I think, is clear: we can produce way more energy per acre with soybean biodiesel than with corn ethanol.
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Fred 8:15PM (7/18/2006)
I own a 2002 GMC Sonoma that runs on E-85, and a 2004 Ford that will run on B-5. You bio-diesel fans seem to have forgotten that no diesel manufacturer makes a diesel that will run on B-85, or anything close to it. You might as well push for fuel cells or some other not-ready-for-prime-time solution. Ethanol is here now and is useable in significant fuel mixtures, in vehicles that can be readily purchased. Like soccer in America, bio-diesel is "the wave of the future, and it always will be."
And, to return to the subject at hand, last time I checked, field corn was mostly used to feed cattle and make food additives. I doubt seriously that the poor in Egypt of Nigeria are munching down on a plate full of corn, or, for that matter, that they ever will. Have you ever eaten field corn? I have. Not very palatable.
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