Food and fodder as fuel is foolish.

Nestle is pointing out that their special interests will be affected, and the biomass people are saying there's no problem. We need to look well below the surface to find out what the real issues are, on this.

At present, 1% of the US workforce, using 25% of the nations farmable land, produces twice the food we consume... making food our major export. I find fear of bio-fuel causing starvation hard to accept. Paving over the fields with solar-cells would destroy more food than bio-fuels, especially if the bio-fuels are produced from the discarded biomass as currently envisioned. (Solar cells are still far less efficient at capturing solar energy than green plants.) We need more research and FACTS before we can trust rants from CEOs who require cheap sugar and corn syrup to keep their candy business profitable.

I think the world's biggest beverage company doesn't want to have to pay more then a few cents per pound for high fructose corn syrup, the primary component differing their beverages from water...

I am more worried about a revolution on our doorstep in Mexico over the high price of corn and wheat. It has also gone into our economy with Milk up 35%, Eggs up 20% and anything that uses corn in the production Poultry, Beef and Turkeys have gone up because of the higher cost of corn. Face it Corn ain't green except for the producers.

World wheat and grain production have not kept up with demand for a number of reasons and biofuels have nothing much to do with it , only 2 percent of grains are used for biofuels. The main reason are these drought in grain producing countries, early frost in kansas and some other countries and the biggest problem is very very low grain prices. Farmers 40 years ago got 6 usd a bushel for wheat today as of oct 07 till now up to 12 usd a bushel while farm inputs for everything from fuel to farm tractors have went up 10 times in price. Hundred of thousand of north american farmers have gone bankrupt. Want to increase food production you need to increase the price farmers recieve for grain. No farmer can produce wheat for 5 usd a bushel because it is impossible. Support farmers and the prices they receive and every one will have enouf food to eat now and in the future. When wheat prices were low the world had a 60 day supply now we will have a 10 day supply by june. Why didnt people support higher prices then and get world grain supply up to 1 year or more instead of 60 days? Farmers need to make a living also. We cant grow grain and lose money and go bankrupt and spend 40 years of our life to retire so poor we cant even buy food oursleves.

Yeah. The fact that we only have a 10 day supply of food worldwide at any given time is frightening. What if there are a few fairly major disasters that all happen around the same time? A tsunami in one place, a big volcano going off somewhere else, unseasonable frost somewhere else, and a drought or flood in another region. "Oh, no problem" you say. "World food production is cut in half, but it will be back to normal in a mere 3 months, so no need to worry".... oops. 90 days huh? 90 days is a long time when you only have 10 days of food stores.

"The cost of rice has risen by 20% over the past year, maize by 50%, wheat by 100%. Biofuels aren't entirely to blame - by taking land out of food production they exacerbate the effects of bad harvests and rising demand - but almost all the major agencies are now warning against expansion. And almost all the major governments are ignoring them.
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Food shortage will of course be limited to poorest countries. There are programs in Africa for example where oil companies pay local farmers to produce oily plants (dont remember its name) for biofuels instead of food for local market. That is more profitable for those selected farmers but it means that less area is used to grow food for local market and it will drive food prices higher making them to high for some to afford. Thats the main concern, no one says Americans will be starving.

Personally...I'd rather eat than drive.
News ! Do we want to drive or eat...?
http://www.socybe...od.21327
An Abrupt Reality: Fuel or Food.