Biodiesel is Not The Problem

[percussivemadness]

Greets,

With all the discussion about biofuels, I found this perspective online which may help put fire on the anti-alternative energy brigade current assault on the alternative energy solution..

Biodiesel Is Not The Problem

Biodiesel is NOT adding to any food crisis.

Let me repeat that: Biodiesel is NOT adding to any food crisis.

Biodiesel is very different from ethanol, yet both are often lumped together as "biofuels". Their impact is drastically different. Let me tell you how:

1. BIODIESEL USES THE CROP'S OIL.

If soy, which is the primary biodiesel crop, is the feedstock, an acre of soy STILL produces an acre's worth of soy meal. The oil is pressed, and that is what is used to make biodiesel. You are not losing food, or cattle feed, or anything.

Ethanol is different. It uses the crop itself. There is a high-fat corn oil left over, and we're hoping this will develop into a better biodiesel feedstock, but as it stands, the corn used by ethanol is essentially consumed for that purpose.

Full article at http://www.bidforgreen.com/bid/displayblog.php?id=734

Peace

[lapfog_1]

1. Another biodiesel feedstock is CPO

or Crude Palm Oil. The problems with this are that the Oil Palm only grows in certain equatorial locations, often that have a high rainfall, and are often environmentally sensitive. We are destroying hectares of rain forest and wildlife refuge areas (the Borneo Pygmy elephant will likely lose 80 percent of their natural environment). On the other hand, the palm oil tree produces 12 times more oil per acre per year than soybeans. The oil from the Oil Palm is also used throughout the world as cooking oil.

A new plant, the jatropha bush, is an up and coming biodiesel feedstock, producing 1000 gallons of oil per acre per year. It can be grown in many areas of the planet, though it likes warmer climates. Florida is now planting a lot of jatropha. The major problem is that it's three years before the plant reaches maturity and starts putting beans on that can be harvested.

And the greatest hope is algae. Some species of algae, grown in desert climate with high saline content water (brackish) can produce 10,000 gallons of oil per acre.

[percussivemadness]

4. excellent information

ty :)

Peace

[truedelphi]

17. Don't forget Hemp - it grows like a weed becuz

It is a weed.

We could plant it everywhere - the traffic medians etc. Empty fields and vacant lots.

[truedelphi]

18. Even ethanol doesn't HAVE to be the problem it is

They could be using the corn cobs and the corn husks instead of the corn itself.

But the Powers that be don't mention that.

For the last sixty years, the experts knew that we would be hitting peak oil soon, that is - right about now.

Did the media ever complain very much about our need to get off the oil nipple?

Nope -beczuse the banks and oil companies own the media.

But let the corn farmer boost up the cost of corn a bit - and all of a sudden, corn for ethanol is an idea that should be stopped cold.

When actually, corn for ethanol just needs to be re-thought.

[RufusTFirefly]

2. Correct. An unfair generalization

As a biofuel, biodiesel has been tarred with the same broad brush that has justly criticized ethanol.

Also, keep in mind that in the United States, "animals account for 70 percent of domestic grain use, while India and sub-Saharan Africa offer just 2 percent of their cereal harvest to livestock." (USDA FAS 1991)

Ironically, in India cows are sacred, while in the United States the beef industry is a sacred cow. Anyone who dares to question or criticize it, does so at their own peril.

[percussivemadness]

3. excellent point

Bid For Green are really pushing the biodiesel solution, however, with the faux news hysteria re Ethanol, they (faux) are lumping everything together as biofuels, and confusing the general populace.

Thanks for your recs, this is an important distinction.

Peace

[Terry in Austin]

5. Car-centric premise is the problem

Biodiesel and other proposed "alternative fuels" simply perpetuate it.

America's addiction isn't just to oil, but to the car-centered "American way of life," which Dick Cheney has proclaimed to be "not negotiable."

We've got a heckuva jones, and even contemplating losing it puts us into the classic five-stage process of grieving a loss. The alternative fuels business fits nicely into the third stage, bargaining: "Well, if we can just find some other kind of fuel to put in the tank, maybe we can keep our cars."

An apt quote from Richard Heinberg: "We don’t need alternative cars; we need alternatives to cars, starting with ways to reduce our need for travel in the first place."

[RufusTFirefly]

7. Wonderful point

All too often lost in the confusion.

And I'd never heard the Kubler-Ross stages used to describe car addiction. Very clever. And apt.

[percussivemadness]

8. the reality is

whilst I agree to some degree with your sentiments, the reality is, cars are here to stay for a while yet.

The main culprit is distribution and for starters that needs to be examined.

Cars however, are here to stay..

Peace

[RufusTFirefly]

10. The reality is that we need an exit strategy from car-centrism

Biodiesel can help ease the pain as we're making the transition, but if it only serves to prop up car-centrism, we are in trouble.

[percussivemadness]

11. totally agree :)

peace

[yurbud]

6. put the part about using the oil and leaving the food in your subject line

this frustrates me too.

I think the real problem here is market manipulation since we pay farmers to NOT grow so much and we still have crop surpluses anyway.

[percussivemadness]

9. it won`t let me edit

but thanks for the suggestion :)

Peace

[Strelnikov_]

12. Wet milling of corn for ethanol production leaves ~70% of the human food value remaining

(meal, oil, germ, etc.). About the same as soy biodiesel (70% of soy food value remains).


The problem is that nearly all of the corn ethanol plants built recently have been dry mill plants that only yield ethanol and DDGS, which is really only good for cattle feed.

[NightWatcher]

13. you should read this article "dont blame the market"

http://www.lewrockwell.com/snyder-joshua/snyder-joshua14.html

just another point of view or opinion on this complicated matter

[percussivemadness]

14. good article :)

TY for posting

peace

[skids]

19. Feh. More tripe from free marketeers.

Their usual mis-logic "Government market intervention X went wrong, therefor all of them are bad."

Ethanol isn't "the problem" either, it's only like 10 to 20% of the problem.

While there is some evidence that U.S. domestic food price increases can be tied to ethanol, Sartwelle said many commodities that are currently experiencing supply-and-demand stresses aren’t biofuel-related, like rice and wheat. He also emphasized that the impact of U.S. biofuel policies on the rest of the world is grossly exaggerated anyway.

“It’s a pretty small drop in the bucket,” he said. “Weather isn’t policy-driven, and neither are changing food tastes and preferences halfway around the world. These things aren’t caused by U.S. or EU policy.”

...

Estimates of the link between biofuel production policies and recent food price increases vary. The Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute says 25 to 33 percent of the inflation is due to biofuel policies, while the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization puts the impact at 10-15 percent.

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/ethanol-part-of-food-crisis--says-durbin-2008-04-28.html

Sugar-based ethanol is a dead end, don't get me wrong, and an environmental catastrophe, but there are other things to blame, some of which are human and trying to get away scott free by blaming it all on biofuels, meanwhile stocking up on petro-shares.

Luckily there is a silver lining in that the sugar-ethanol industry will leave in it's wake a market that can be entered by cellulosic.

(and biodiesel is better, of course, but until we have hybrid diesel PHEVs for sale someplace other than Europe it's going to have less of an impact than it could.)

[ColbertWatcher]

15. THANK YOU! n/t

[bluesmail]

16. Big Oil sure wants you to think that it's bio-anything

to keep the crude coming

[percussivemadness]

21. agreed 100%

peace

[roody]

20. I am lucky to live near Yokayo Biofuel and

use recycled vegie oil biodiesel to fuel my car. I am developing a bicycle habit too.

[OneBlueSky]

22. this isn't entirely correct . . .

since farmers are switching to subsidized "oil-producing" plants, the price of food grains that they aren't growing inevitably rises, as this article points out . . .

http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8836

"Ethanol and biodiesel are very heavily subsidized, which means, inevitably, that crops like corn (maize) are being diverted out of the food chain and into gas tanks, and that new agricultural investment worldwide is being directed towards palm, soy, canola and other oil-producing plants. This increases the prices of agrofuel crops directly, and indirectly boosts the price of other grains by encouraging growers to switch to agrofuel."