One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars - not people, new figures show

[Cecilie1200]

Do you seriously think that the hungry of the world would get that corn if we did not use it for fuel?

Yes. Yes I do. Do you think it sits in a granary somewhere to rot or something? It gets sold & Donated around the world.

But I guess it's better to use food to get us away from oil then it is to use oil and take that food to starving people and to keep them warm at night. It's not like they really matter.

I think he thinks that if corn growers lose one customer, they simply stop growing corn, instead of, say, selling it to OTHER customers.

I guess by his logic, if I stop shopping at WalMart, they'll just shut their doors.

 

[RetiredGySgt]

Bringing you breaking news stories you may not see elsewhere as always. This one is surely interesting.

One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars - not people, new figures show | Environment | guardian.co.uk

One-quarter of all the maize and other grain crops grown in the US now ends up as biofuel in cars rather than being used to feed people, according to new analysis which suggests that the biofuel revolution launched by former President George Bush in 2007 is impacting on world food supplies.

The 2009 figures from the US Department of Agriculture shows ethanol production rising to record levels driven by farm subsidies and laws which require vehicles to use increasing amounts of biofuels.

The grain grown to produce fuel in the US [in 2009] was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels," said Lester Brown, the director of the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington thinktank ithat conducted the analysis.

Last year 107m tonnes of grain, mostly corn, was grown by US farmers to be blended with petrol. This was nearly twice as much as in 2007, when Bush challenged farmers to increase production by 500% by 2017 to save cut oil imports and reduce carbon emissions.

Since then, the number of hungry people in the world has increased to over 1 billion people, according to the UN's World Food programme.

1 Billion people hungry worldwide, 75% increase in food prices due to biofuels and 25% of US Grain crops going to cars.

What the fuck.

Seriously? Has it come to this point? As I spoke about back during the 2008 election, the whole idea of Ethanol becoming a major contributor to alternative energy would result in more hunger, higher food prices. And it looks like I was dead on.

What are your thoughts USMB?

Do you seriously think that the hungry of the world would get that corn if we did not use it for fuel?

It has reduced our oil imports by how much?

It has helped the rural economies of America by how much?

If we quit ethanol right now it would deepen our recession by how much?

You can get MORE ethanol from seaweed and at no cost to food production. Further it takes more energy to make the corn into fuel then you get back.

 

[Samson]

Do you seriously think that the hungry of the world would get that corn if we did not use it for fuel?

Yes. Yes I do. Do you think it sits in a granary somewhere to rot or something? It gets sold & Donated around the world.

But I guess it's better to use food to get us away from oil then it is to use oil and take that food to starving people and to keep them warm at night. It's not like they really matter.

I think he thinks that if corn growers lose one customer, they simply stop growing corn, instead of, say, selling it to OTHER customers.

I guess by his logic, if I stop shopping at WalMart, they'll just shut their doors.

I'm sure you're both aware that corn is a commodity, and not socks made in Bangladesh. That indeed, it costs something to produce, but that the selling price can actually fall below the production costs enough so the grower might not harvest the crop because this would increse his loss (it costs something to pick corn).

Now if the grower is a farmer, this is probably a small loss.

If the grower is ADM, then the price flux sets off a cycle of low and high commodity prices that make a box of cornflakes cost $10 one year (a growing season), and $5 the next. Soon Americans would Do the Unthinkable: Stop eating and drinking enough corn to make US citizens the fattest people on the planet!!!

WTF would we do if we couldn't wash down a cheap bag of Doritos with a liter of Pepsi?

There'd be rioting in the streets!!!

I'll not even go into the huge detail that 99% of our hamburger is ground from cheaply fattened, corn-fed cattle.

 

[uscitizen]

Cato.org ? LMAO

Partisan parrots are entertaining.

You didn't read, and you know nothing about what's partisan and what isn't.

Cato Institute - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Cato Institute is non-partisan, and its scholars' views are not consistently aligned with either major political party.

So, why not at least READ what they have to say? You won't look anywhere nearly as stupid and ignorant on this subject afterword.

So I should read Err America or some such liberal site as well?

 

[uscitizen]

Bringing you breaking news stories you may not see elsewhere as always. This one is surely interesting.

One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars - not people, new figures show | Environment | guardian.co.uk







1 Billion people hungry worldwide, 75% increase in food prices due to biofuels and 25% of US Grain crops going to cars.

What the fuck.

Seriously? Has it come to this point? As I spoke about back during the 2008 election, the whole idea of Ethanol becoming a major contributor to alternative energy would result in more hunger, higher food prices. And it looks like I was dead on.

What are your thoughts USMB?

Do you seriously think that the hungry of the world would get that corn if we did not use it for fuel?

It has reduced our oil imports by how much?

It has helped the rural economies of America by how much?

If we quit ethanol right now it would deepen our recession by how much?

You can get MORE ethanol from seaweed and at no cost to food production. Further it takes more energy to make the corn into fuel then you get back.

How much energy does it take to produce one gallon of gas?
The drilling, pumping, transportation and refining?

find that on Cato.

 

[rightwinger]

What a waste of grain

We should be using our grain to make beer

 

[uscitizen]

What a waste of grain

We should be using our grain to make beer

Corn makes hard booze.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

What a waste of grain

We should be using our grain to make beer

You mean whiskey, right?

 

[Old Rocks]

October 12, 2007 8:45 A.M.

Republicans Drunk on Ethanol


It’s a depressing ritual. Every four years, as Iowans prepare to cast the first votes in the presidential-primary season, candidates descend on the corn-covered state and discover the miraculous properties of ethanol. The latest convert is Fred Thompson, who voted against ethanol subsidies when he was a U.S. senator but now says that ethanol is “a matter . . . of national security.” What he means is that he supports increasing federal assistance for ethanol production, on the grounds that this will reduce American dependence on oil from the Middle East. But, like most arguments for ethanol subsidies, this one is spurious.

Republicans Drunk on Ethanol - The Editors - National Review Online

 

[Old Rocks]

Bringing you breaking news stories you may not see elsewhere as always. This one is surely interesting.

One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars - not people, new figures show | Environment | guardian.co.uk







1 Billion people hungry worldwide, 75% increase in food prices due to biofuels and 25% of US Grain crops going to cars.

What the fuck.

Seriously? Has it come to this point? As I spoke about back during the 2008 election, the whole idea of Ethanol becoming a major contributor to alternative energy would result in more hunger, higher food prices. And it looks like I was dead on.

What are your thoughts USMB?

Do you seriously think that the hungry of the world would get that corn if we did not use it for fuel?

It has reduced our oil imports by how much?

It has helped the rural economies of America by how much?

If we quit ethanol right now it would deepen our recession by how much?

You can get MORE ethanol from seaweed and at no cost to food production. Further it takes more energy to make the corn into fuel then you get back.

Exactly. Algea grown from sewage waste in our cities would make sense for ethanol, or bio-diesel production. Using food products such as corn, is a moral issue.

 

[uscitizen]

My tractor woud not work well for harvesting seaweed.

 

[Samson]

My tractor woud not work well for harvesting seaweed.

Nonetheless, it would be fun to watch.

 

[uscitizen]

My tractor woud not work well for harvesting seaweed.

Nonetheless, it would be fun to watch.

You can drive.



My point is that we would have to set up an entirely new harvesting and processing system for seaweed and some of the transportation system as well. Plus there is the investment already into the production of ethanol from corn.

It would also depress the corn producing areas of the nation a lot too.
Also these areas are largely right wingers.

 

[Samson]

My tractor woud not work well for harvesting seaweed.

Nonetheless, it would be fun to watch.

You can drive.

.

I bet I'd get to see and collect a lot of octopii and squids.

 

[uscitizen]

Nonetheless, it would be fun to watch.

You can drive.

.

I bet I'd get to see and collect a lot of octopii and squids.

The experience could just kind of grab onto ya I suppose.
But then again it might suck all over the place.

 

[Samson]

My point is that we would have to set up an entirely new harvesting and processing system for seaweed and some of the transportation system as well. Plus there is the investment already into the production of ethanol from corn.

It would also depress the corn producing areas of the nation a lot too.
Also these areas are largely right wingers.

I'm sure that Envirowackos would find some small, endangered crab, sea slug, or what-not that would not tolerate harvesting of seaweed, and would become extinct due to the Callousness of Mankind.

No doubt they would tie themselves to Seaweed to prevent out tractors from harvesting the crop.

 

[uscitizen]

My point is that we would have to set up an entirely new harvesting and processing system for seaweed and some of the transportation system as well. Plus there is the investment already into the production of ethanol from corn.

It would also depress the corn producing areas of the nation a lot too.
Also these areas are largely right wingers.

I'm sure that Envirowackos would find some small, endangered crab, sea slug, or what-not that would not tolerate harvesting of seaweed, and would become extinct due to the Callousness of Mankind.

No doubt they would tie themselves to Seaweed to prevent out tractors from harvesting the crop.

No doubt some would.
And I'll bet it would even void the warranty on our tractors! Now there is a serious reason against doing it.

 

[Samson]

My point is that we would have to set up an entirely new harvesting and processing system for seaweed and some of the transportation system as well. Plus there is the investment already into the production of ethanol from corn.

It would also depress the corn producing areas of the nation a lot too.
Also these areas are largely right wingers.

I'm sure that Envirowackos would find some small, endangered crab, sea slug, or what-not that would not tolerate harvesting of seaweed, and would become extinct due to the Callousness of Mankind.

No doubt they would tie themselves to Seaweed to prevent out tractors from harvesting the crop.

No doubt some would.
And I'll bet it would even void the warranty on our tractors! Now there is a serious reason against doing it.

We'd need to take out additional Undersea Enviro-Terrorist Tractor Insurance, and train teams of Vicious Minke Whales to protect the Seaweed Farms!

I smell a Government Grant to support the battalion of bikini-clad researchers I'll need to complete a feasibility study.

 

[uscitizen]

I'm sure that Envirowackos would find some small, endangered crab, sea slug, or what-not that would not tolerate harvesting of seaweed, and would become extinct due to the Callousness of Mankind.

No doubt they would tie themselves to Seaweed to prevent out tractors from harvesting the crop.

No doubt some would.
And I'll bet it would even void the warranty on our tractors! Now there is a serious reason against doing it.

We'd need to take out additional Undersea Enviro-Terrorist Tractor Insurance, and train teams of Vicious Minke Whales to protect the Seaweed Farms!

I smell a Government Grant to support the battalion of bikini-clad researchers I'll need to complete a feasibility study.

Minkey Whales? Do they swing in trees?

I will be your assistant and conduct a concurrent suntan study.
Do tan lines cause Cometary course deviations?