On Ethanol and Food
September 3rd, 2006 by Grant in: Economics, Energy, Oil & GasIt appears that the reality of ethanol is rearing its ugly head. There have been several articles, mainly from Wall Street, that are finally seeing the connection between the ethanol fad and our dependence on food.
In a very telling article written by Lester Brown from Fortune Magazine, the harsh reality of Ethanol is spelled out such that anyone with the most basic understanding of competitive markets can understand:
“This year cars, not people, will claim most of the increase in world grain consumption.”
While ethanol may be a good substitute for the MBTE additive that has recently been outlawed as a gasoline additive to reduce pollution, it’s no replacement for gasoline itself. Replacing one finite resource (petroleum) with another finite resource (grains) is by no means a step in the right direction.
“The grain required to fill a 25-gallon SUV gas tank with ethanol, for instance, could feed a single person for a year. If today’s entire grain harvest were converted into fuel for cars, it would still satisfy less than one-sixth of U.S. demand.”
Take away bread, chips, rice, corn, tortillas, crackers, and all other grain-based food products, and one out of six of us can run our vehicles.
Ethanol may be a fine replacement for MTBE, but it’s foolish to think it’s a replacement for gasoline itself.
The replacement from gasoline will come from a source that’s self-replenishing, environmentally safe, and readily abundant.
The current leader in the race? Hydrogen.
In a good post on Peak Oil News, Jason Mark writes about the dillema between using land to grow fuel, or using land to grow food.
If the trend leans towards growing fuel vs. growing dinner, be prepared to pay a lot more for dinner.
Leave comments
Subscribe to Comments
Loading ...
September 3rd, 2006 at 3:16 pm
Grant, great article!
Not many people look at it from this perspective. Ethanol is seen by the general public as a “save all”, but really it could only be a temporary solution at best.
September 3rd, 2006 at 7:43 pm
Chris,
Ethanol is a funny subject in that the government is out to make the public think that ethanol is the end-all-be-all to our energy problems. It’s good for the environment, it’s good for the farmer, and it’s easy to make people think it will solve our energy dependency.
Once the general public realizes that ethanol has the following effects, we’ll start to look at ethanol as a stepping stone again, as it was in the first place:
1. it’s less efficient than gasoline
2. it’s more costly to produce
3. it’s no cheaper to buy at the pump (an effect of 1 and 2 above)
4. we’ll pay for it through our dinner plate if we rely on it as an energy alternative.
As they say, you can’t have your cake and eat it too!
-Grant
September 3rd, 2006 at 9:43 pm
I don’t agre with your stand on ethanol. I believe there is enough land to generate enough ethaonl to curb our demand on foreign oil.
And don’t you guys realize you can make thanol from more than just corn and grains? Switch grass and other fiberous, naturally occuring substances will fuel the ethanol fire for many years to come.
September 5th, 2006 at 10:15 am
Ralph, grains contain more energy than does grass, and as Grant and the article posted, grains are still losing the energy containment war to oil. And I don’t agree with you on your statement that we have enough land. But, we could always kick off the grazing cows to make room for ethanol-producing grass fields…wait, what will that do to our ever-important beef business? I guess every American will have to become a vegetarian.
September 5th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
Oil continues to be the most efficient means of generating locomotive power.
You can grow whatever grain or naturally occuring substance you want, but unless you have a continuous harvest, you won’t stand a chance in keeping up with demand.
Corn, wheat, rice, switch grass… None of them can be grown over night. Then throw in weather patterns and the effects on crop yields, and you’re left to speculation as to how much of a dent you can put in our dependence on foreign oil.
-Grant