"Food vs. Fuel," A False Debate

Gas prices have doubled. High food prices have pushed over a hundred million people into starvation. It's snowing in the northwest United States -- in the middle of summer. And a United States president, known for his allegiance to the dark world of oil and for his suspect behavior around the biggest terrorist attack in U.S. history, appears to be preparing to go to war with Iran.

This is not the set up for Oliver Stone's new World War III thriller; it is the summer of 2008 -- a year that will likely determine the course of America for generations to come.

Against this volatile backdrop, there is a growing hope that the "green" in America's red, white and blue could yield answers and technologies that can get us out of the climate and energy crises. Depending on one's particular definition of "green," a new group of fuels called "biofuels" have become a personal badge of honor for some and a national disgrace for others. A fervent debate rages over the ecological, economic, and sociological impact of these fuels.

In an effort to simplify the data, the media has clumped these fuels together, calling the entire conglomerate of biologically derived fuels "biofuels." Through a carefully managed flurry of information, the public has been led to believe three vastly generalized myths:

1) Biofuels are all the same;
2) Biofuels are "bad" because they are produced at the expense of food;

oh, and one other thing ,

3) Biofuels are all made from the big bad grain called corn.

But nothing could be further from the truth.

That's because, like biofuels, the truth is a commodity bought and sold on the open market. The recent "untruths" about biofuels are brought to us by the American Petroleum Institute (API), which has given the New York based public relations agency Edelmann the mandate to "better America's perception of petroleum fuels," and the Grocery Marketer's Association of America (GMA), which, according to Iowa Senator Grassley's web site, has also initiated a smear campaign against biofuels. The debate these strange bedfellows manufactured is now commonly known as "Food vs. Fuel."

Much of the "Food vs. Fuel" controversy centers on ethanol, the alcohol fuel that is primarily made from corn in the United States and sugarcane in Brazil. Very little ink or airtime is given to the other biofuels, especially fuels from non-food sources, fuels from waste and fuels from new crops like algae.

In addition to dissuading the public and most policy makers that biofuels could be a viable solution to the energy woes of America, this debate has combined with the soaring price of oil and a lack of government support to decimate much of the U.S. biofuels industry.

Over the coming weeks, I will attempt to dissect the myths surrounding the "Food vs. Fuel" debate, and present you with some cutting-edge information about biofuels. I will also do my best to address the many questions you will pose.

Following is a general outline of the topics I will be covering:

Week 2
Who Ate My Tortillas? -- The Truth About Food vs. Fuel

Week 3
Where's My Orangutan? -- Why Biofuels Don't Kill Apes

Week 4
Too Expensive to Meter -- The Exploding Nuclear/Hydrogen Hype

Week 5
Biofuels 101 -- What Dick Cheney Doesn't Want You to Know

Week 6
Biofuels: The Next (and Hopefully We'll Get it Right) Generation

Week 7
Mean Green Fuel Machines -- Algae to the Rescue

Week 8
Bio "Energy" -- Mother Nature Knows Best

Week 9
The Secret to the Energy Universe -- (Finally!)

Week 10
New Series -- "Global Warming Doesn't Exist (So Why is it so Darned Hot ?!)"

Our country is capable of becoming self-sufficient, out of war and out of debt while breathing the fresh air of environmental consciousness and keeping our stomachs full.

Comments

[Guitarsandmore]

My dad used to go to the brewery and buy a trailer load of mash for $3.00 and bring it home to feed the ducks. The brewery made the alcohol. My Dad raised the ducks on the leftover mash from the alcohol and we ate the ducks. The ducks also produced eggs. The cars can burn alcohol made from crops and the leftovers can still be used as food for something else.

It takes ten pounds of grain to raise one pound of beef but only one pound of grain to raise one pound of fish.

Alcohol burns much cleaner in cars than gasoline and you can make alcohol out of anything that ferments and any fruit,vegtable, or grain, will ferment with sugar and water and yeast.

Most of Americas farmland does not grow corn only about 5%.

Plants take carbon dioxide out of the atmostphere in order to grow. By making fuel out of plants you are helping to remove carbon dioxide from the air. Burning gasoline puts carbon dioxide into the air that wasn't there last year or the year before (from ancient source only).

[Ethanol]

Mr. Tickell: I think you are right on. To help you with your commentary, please go to the Alternative Fuels Institute's website: www.fieldstofuel.org.....You will find everything you ever wanted to know about ethanol, biodiesel and corn....further to this,,,,,please check out my youtube video on the Food vs. Fuel debate....it should answer all of your questions. Cheers, Dr. Jeff Zeiger, Executive Director of the Alternative Fuels Institute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo8iPAzgVcw

[DavidWojick]

What lack of government support? Title IX of the new farm bill gives billions in USDA grants, loans and tax breaks to biofuel. DOE is funding new refineries. Federal R&D is booming (search http://www.science.gov on biofuel). There is a federal mandate to use biofuel in ever increasing quantities. What more do you want?
David Wojick http://www.climatechangedebate.org

[RRK70]

You mean this?
http://www.showmenews.com/2008/Jun/20080610News022.asp

Published Tuesday, June 10, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Republicans have blocked action on legislation containing more than $50 billion in tax breaks and renewable energy incentives..........

As a comparison, we have spent approximately 650 billion dollars in Iraq to date.

[RRK70]

you mean this?
http://www.showmenews.com/2008/Jun/20080610News022.asp

Published Tuesday, June 10, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Republicans have blocked action on legislation containing more than $50 billion in tax breaks and renewable energy incentives

As a means of comparison, we have spent approximately $650 billion on the war in Iraq to date.

[cylindar]

Algae is at this time only and experimental and definitely not a viable fuel producing technique. The fact is that corn is being used as a fuel source and the fact is that this is driving up food prices. Switchgrass is also not a viable producing technique is is only experimental with the results not being bery good at the moment. After Brazil gets done raping it's resources they will not be able to continue to produce ethanol like they are now and will have to switch over to something else. Growing sugar cane really saps the soil and they will pay for it in spades. Land used for growing biofuels will be taking away land that may be used for food cultivation. The amount of water needed to process biofuels will create such a problem that it will be impossible to do so without endangering our water supplies.

[RRK70]

So the only choice must be to keep burning petro?
I find it amazing that Germany and to some degree Japan were fueling their militaries on ethanol and biodiesel a half century ago yet we find ourselves debating the efficacy of these technologies today. There are a plethora of renewabl energy alternatives out there, what is needed is some LEADERSHIP that can convince or encourage business to invest the capital.

Food vs. Fuel is a false debate. There is a lot of poor education regarding alternative energy and biofuels in particular. Check out Vinod Khosla's blog on this same page: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vinod-khosla/biofuels-good-or-bad_b_107921.html
it does a good job of debunking the food or fuel myth.

[Guitarsandmore]

Josh,

Great post and great comments from users! I look forward to the reading all of your posts!

Best Regards,

G&M

[PeakOilBoy]

I know Josh and have helped him here in Portland.

All I can say is that he and David Blume have the right course, and we certainly can have both food and fuel. This following link is worth billions of dollars: http://www.alcoholcanbeagas.com/?bid=2&aid=CD1&opt=

Also, if you look at the most recect post at www.lawnstogardens.com, you can learn a fast, easy way to deal with this mess right now.

- PeakOilBoy

[rwe]

DRULL HERE DRILL NOW...Yes use as many alternative sources as possible, BUT we have ;the technology to use them ALL,and use them without endagering the planet... Not one drop of oil was leaked or spilled during Katrina.

[1will]

Good post.

[bushflipflops]

Here is a photo from space taken after Katrina hit.

http://skytruth.mediatools.org/node/19981

I think you should stop repeating the right wing lie that no oil spills took place.

[RoloTomassi]

Typical BS from you. Oil operations spill oil allo ver this planet everyday, in small quantities that aren't reported; larger yet not catastrophic spills happen regularly, but are usually covered up by the oil personnel on hand [soap applied to oil causes it to sink in the water--it still does damage, but no one sees it].

And unless you've seen how that industry operates in a realworld sense, you've got no business commenting on how safe it is.

[Chubbster]

Well, who cares if Americans miss their corn chips. Meanwhile the world starves. We are not converting switchgrass yet and people are indeed going hungry as 1/3 of our corn crop turns to food. Facts are sticky things...

[KillTheMessenger]

I really hope you will discuss the thermodynamic efficiency of plants. It is horrendously low. For ordinary plants under normal growing conditions it is at least an order of magnitude below our current solar cells (not counting the chemistry losses to convert plant sugars or oils into technically useful fuels). Especially corn farmers would collect more net energy with a barn roof full of solar than with acres of corn. The energy from solar would be much cheaper, too. And if Brazil were to plant silicon solar cells instead of sugar cane, the world would never run out of energy.

Here are a few links that might be helpful:

http://www.fao.org/docrep/w7241e/w7241e05.htm

Here is a hint of what it takes to coax a biological system into performing on the level of engineering systems:

http://www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/reprint/88/3/869

Now to what solar cells can do:

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=3117599

[TakeSake]

The conversion efficiency of hemp, for instance, to oil or fiber used for burning is very low. However, it does something that solar cannot: capture CO2 and release O2 while using the carbon for its growth. This "byproduct" should be accounted for when comparing biofuel efficiency with solar.

That being said, there is no reason whatsoever that 90% of hot water heating could not be done with thermal solar installations. It should simply be a part of any construction plan. It's silly to burn natural gas in the summer for water heat, and a good sized solar installation can at least pre-heat the water in winter.

It's beyond me why appliance companies are not making thermal solar and small wind generators. The materials and technologies fit exactly with what they do to make dishwashers and refrigerators.

[leduck]

some day soon i'll have to look up the amount of energy stored in oil, natural gas, and coal..., Vs. the amount of energy we could get out of biofuels.
because i'm tired of the junk about how biofuels will save us.

no anything about EROIE?

because i seriously doubt it will

we need to be straight with people, because if the democrats start making promises they can never keep, then the republicans will make a big comeback within a few years.

[KenGirard]

I've done a bit of real life testing with e85 (15% gas, 85% alcohol) and I get about 20% fewer miles per gallon on E85 then I get with gas. Of course right now my local gas station has gas for $3.96, and E85 for $2.95 (25% cheaper then gas), so I filled up on E85 tonight.

A friend of mine had a diesel VW Rabbit back in the 80s that got something like 70-80mpg. Yes, diesel is dirtier then gas....but when you are burning about 1/3-1/2 as much fuel (2008 Rabbit gets 22/29mpg) it has to be a whole lot dirtier to make a difference. And from what I've been told, bio-diesel (vegetable oil) burns cleaner then diesel, and gets slightly better mileage. And bio-diesel can be made from many plants, and can be made from the vegetable oil after it has been used to cook food (Work at McDonald's and drive for free).

As to which is best... not a clue. I'd personally rather see concentrated sunlight used to produce steam to run generators to make electric. Or put solar panels on every rooftop, and cover 10% of Death Valley as well (Should take care of LA).

[jsknow]

Hemp is 4 times more efficient than corn as biofuel. Hemp pellets can be used to produce clean electricity.

... so powerful it could replace every type of fossil fuel energy product (oil, coal, and natural gas).

... This plant is the earth's number one biomass resource or fastest growing annual plant for agriculture on a worldwide basis, producing up to 14 tons per acre. This is the only biomass source available that is capable of producing all the energy needs of the U.S. and the world...

Hemp will produce cleaner air and reduce greenhouse gases. When biomass fuel burns, it produces CO2 (the major cause of the greenhouse effect), the same as fossil fuel; but during the growth cycle of the plant, photosynthesis removes as much CO2 from the air as burning the biomass adds, so hemp actually cleans the atmosphere. After the first cycle there is no further loading to the atmosphere...
Source: USA Hemp Museum

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[KillTheMessenger]

It makes good shirts and one can smoke it, too. Which is what most people seem to do who call hemp a miracle plant. It is a great potential resource and a woefully underutilized plant, but it can not perform miracles that go beyond the limits of physics and plant physiology.

[TakeSake]

My grandfather grew hemp for the Navy in WWII.

[jsknow]

Bio-fuel caught my attention, sources are noted. There's a "Fuel" movie titled "HEMP FUEL Can Supply All Our Energy Needs" on the website referenced at the bottom of this post. It's a short clip but has interesting stats about the land needed to grow enough fuel for all national needs. Since being as efficient as possible saves fuel and preventing pollution in the process can't hurt anything you might want to read "Marijuana Facts The Government Does Not Want You To Know" on the same page.

Hemp can produce several different kinds of fuel. In the 1800's and 1900's hempseed oil was the primary source of fuel in the United States and was commonly used for lamps and other oil energy needs. The diesel engine was originally designed to run on hemp oil because Rudolf Diesel assumed that it would be the most common fuel. Hemp is also the most efficient plant for the production of methanol. It is estimated that, in one form or another, hemp grown in the United States could provide up to ninety percent of the nation's entire energy needs.
Source: Schaffer Library of Drug Policy

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[seawolf77]

Not while the oil monkey is on our back.