Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

BioFuels vs. People

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by

James A. Bacon
in

From the Private Sector Development Blog comes a link to a Foreign Affairs article with the ominous title of “”How Biofuels Could Starve the Poor.”

It’s worth reading in its entirety because it looks beyond just the U.S. and our politically-driven mania for corn-based ethanol. And here’s one factoid that leaps from the page:

Filling the 25-gallon tank of an SUV with pure ethanol requires over 450 pounds of corn – which contains enough calories to feed one person for a year.

Not that my Rover will run on pure ethanol…or that a person could sustain themselves merely on corn for a year. But the energy trade-off in shocking.

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10 responses to “BioFuels vs. People”

  1. E M Risse Avatar
    E M Risse

    Mr. Leahy:

    This post and the last one on Smart Meters are right on target!

    There is no free lunch and the more citizens know, the better the market works.

    The acres and cost shifts in both corn and soybeans are already impacting those at the bottom of the economic food chain in Mexico, Brazil and elsewhere.

    When those at the bottom are not taken into account Venezuela and
    Bolivia (and Cuba) happen.

    Also, if one thinks there is an illegals problem now, wait until just getting enough to eat is a problem south of the Rio Grande.

    EMR

  2. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    The ethanol boondoggle is just one more wearisome example of what happens when worthy causes — energy security and the environment — get hijacked by rent-seeking lobbies with billions of dollars to gain. We do marginally cut our petroleum consumption, the air is marginally cleaner and corn farmers are enjoying a boom. But what’s the cost?

    Let’s see, taxpayers get hosed by footing the bill for subsidies. Motorists get hosed by paying more at the pump. Poor people get hosed by paying more for corn and everything that comes from the cows that eat the corn. Meanwhile, Latin American leftists have another reason to blame the U.S. (you should have heard my Oberon-voting Mexican tour guide!) And in Brazil, where they’re converting sugar cane, not corn, into ethanol, they’re cutting down more rain forest to plant more cane. Yikes, what a mess.

  3. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    let’s see .. would you call these folks exploiting the corn/ethanol situation… tax & spend looney liberals… or greedy capitalists who can and do co-opt government.

    who should we fear more?

  4. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    “When those at the bottom are not taken into account Venezuela and
    Bolivia (and Cuba) happen.

    “Also, if one thinks there is an illegals problem now, wait until just getting enough to eat is a problem south of the Rio Grande.”

    Did I read today that Honda and Hershey had to close down when left wing types blew up a gas line in Mexico?

    Anon Zeus

  5. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    And did you read today that Al-Qaeda is stronger now than on 11 Sept 2001 thanks to our support for the “President” of Pakistan?

    Please do not just pick on the hispanics.

    Anon Zoro and Zora

  6. Ray Hyde Avatar
    Ray Hyde

    “Filling the 25-gallon tank of an SUV with pure ethanol requires over 450 pounds of corn – which contains enough calories to feed one person for a year.”

    This is a nonsense argument.

    Consider carrying freight. If you feed one person for a year, can that one person do as much net work in a year as the SUV can do in a few days? All this says is that an SUV has, and uses, more horsepower faster than a human.

    I understand, and agree with, the sentiment behind the argument, but we need to do better than this.

    Less than 1% of residences in New York come with a parking space. Parking spaces that sold for only $90,000 a few years ago are now $225,000. On a squre foot basis, they are selling for more than the residences, and probably for the same kind of reasons as stated above: the value of the work done by the vehicle enhances and magnifies the work that can be done by the driver more than enough to make the cost worthwhile.

    While we are wighng the costs, we need to weigh all of the costs as the various Anon Z’s have pointed out, correctly, I think.

    As for taxpayers being hosed by paying subsidies to farmers and ethanol producers, isn’t that why we are subsidizing the preservation of farmland? Do we want farmland or not? Do we want it to be profitable, or not?

  7. Groveton Avatar
    Groveton

    Larry:

    tax & spend looney liberals… or greedy capitalists

    Or?

    In many cases these days they are tax & spend looney liberals AND looney capitalists

    Ask Al Gore or John Edwards about their carbon credit schemes.

    Ask the Clintons about Whitewater.

    One of the great tricks of American liberals is to convince people that they are poor people fighting the good fight against rich conservatives.

    What a croc.

    I wonder how Sen. Kennedy would feel about my idea of a 100% tax on all inheritance. Actually, he probably support it as long as it isn’t retroactive!

  8. Larry Gross Avatar
    Larry Gross

    well.. if we REALLY wanted to switch….

    1 acre = 439 gallons of Ethanol

    one car for one year at 15K miles at 20mpg = 750 gallons of fuel.

    158 bushels per acre selling at $3 per bushel. each bushel = 3ish gallons.

    what’s the problem?

    Everyone buys 2 acres of farm land so that it won’t be developed into subdivisions and plants corn to produce enough ethanol for their vehicle for one year.

    so the game plan… you have to buy as many acres of fallow farmland (so it won’t be developed into those nasty subdivisions) as you have vehicles x total miles per year.

    No muss. No fuss. No more Middle East oil and no more NeoCon incursions to “secure” “our” oil supplies in the Middle East.

    Who would want to mess this up?

    I have my suspects… loony liberals and Luddites…

  9. Ray Hyde Avatar
    Ray Hyde

    Larry, I won’t pretend your idea is practical, but it’s nice to see your heart is in the right place and all the basics are there:

    If want something conserved, go buy it and preserve it at your own expense. While you are at it, try to find a way to make that conservation “pay”.

  10. Kely Avatar
    Kely

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