Lindaland
  Global Unity
  Grain Shortages, Rising World Food Prices - and Ethanol Backfires?

Post New Topic  Post A Reply
profile | register | preferences | faq | search

UBBFriend: Email This Page to Someone! next newest topic | next oldest topic
Author Topic:   Grain Shortages, Rising World Food Prices - and Ethanol Backfires?
26taurus
unregistered
posted April 26, 2008 02:15 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1419&category=Environment

Did you catch this show on Coast to Coast AM, jwhop?

Thoughts anyone?

IP: Logged

venusdeindia
unregistered
posted April 26, 2008 02:52 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
didnt watch it, but the issues is gaining notoreity in our newspapers every day. who knows what to expect

IP: Logged

jwhop
Knowflake

Posts: 2787
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted April 26, 2008 11:49 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I don't listen to "Coast to Coast" very often 26T. Only when I have trouble sleeping. It comes on the air here at midnight.

However 26T, perhaps as long as 2 years ago, I expressed the opinion here as to what was going to happen to food supplies when food crop land was taken out of food production to produce corn for ethanol.

Not only has that happened but it's happened in spades.

Not only has crop land for food corn been taken out of food production but wheat producing land has been converted to corn production for ethanol as well.

This is going to pi$$ some off exceedingly but the simple truth is that the EnviroNuts, the global warming nuts are driving a policy which is going to starve to death those who are living on the edge of starvation already and they don't give a damn for all their pious bleating and posturing. Al Gore and his band of crackpot...so called scientists are right at the top of that list.

We're supposed to give them a pat on the head and a gold star on their foreheads for their "Good Intentions".

Ropes and tall flagpoles are their just rewards for the misery and deaths they have set in motion with their global warming hoax.

IP: Logged

jwhop
Knowflake

Posts: 2787
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted April 26, 2008 12:21 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
For most of the world, corn and wheat are long season crops and one crop per year.

It's April and in the US, corn is already planted, wheat should have been planted for this years crop so we're looking at "next" year to convert back to producing food for a hungry world instead of feed stocks for ethanol production.

IP: Logged

TINK
unregistered
posted April 26, 2008 01:36 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Not only has crop land for food corn been taken out of food production but wheat producing land has been converted to corn production for ethanol as well.

I'm confused. We're already drowning in a sea of corn. In fact, my understanding is that some say the ethanol market was created largely as a means of using up some of the excess corn. So what gives? I'm new to this subject.


IP: Logged

Mannu
Knowflake

Posts: 45
From: always here and no where
Registered: Apr 2009

posted April 26, 2008 01:48 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Mannu     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Sorry I didn't watch that video... I am not a big fan of coast to coast.

I am not a big fan of ethanol either - I don't think the my car engine like them either - LOL. Perhaps I am saying that because what others told me hehehe...How will I know if it works great for my car engine?

I hear the corn used in ethanol is of different kind than what we eat as pop corns etc LOL.


They say 400 gallons of corn is used to make 25 gallons of Ethanol.


One can research what goes in to producing that 400 gallons of corn. How much water is used, how much carbon is realeased etc....

They say massive amount of coal is burnt in these ethanol producing factories. Leaving more carbon behind.

Also something to bear in mind is this : They say the government offers subsidies to oil companies if they mix ethanol with petroleum. Hmmm..... are energy companies messing with farmers and earth?

Do you see any hidden agenda?


Its a very bad idea to leave all our problems with the government. they will screw us big ways.

IP: Logged

jwhop
Knowflake

Posts: 2787
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted April 26, 2008 03:25 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
We would be drowning in a sea of corn if all that corn was produced for American consumption..but it's not.

Corn is a commodity bought and sold under futures contracts on the commodity markets of the world. Much of our corn goes off our shores to feed people in other nations...via corn products like Masa, corn meal and prepared products like tortillas.

The same is true of our wheat crop.

There are literally hundreds of strains of corn, perhaps thousands, each with different characteristics as to sugar content, ear size, kernel size, length of time to maturity and lots of other factors.

Efficient Ethanol production requires higher sugar content corn because they're really producing/distilling "white lightning".."moonshine".

It takes more energy to produce a gallon of Ethanol than is released by burning that same gallon of Ethanol. Further, Ethanol is not CO2 free when it's burned and neither is the energy used in making that Ethanol..free of CO2.

Further, Ethanol releases less heat..energy when burned than gasoline. Therefore it takes more Ethanol to move the same load the same distance in the same engine than gasoline which equals...less miles per gallon than gasoline.

The federal government is paying farmers a subsidy to produce corn for Ethanol production. They're also paying fuel refiners 52 cents per gallon produced to blend Ethanol with gasoline...or so, I've read.

In the meantime, prices for corn and wheat..also rice have skyrocketed around the world pricing many on the edge of simple survival out of the market. These are the staples in diets of many around the world.

IP: Logged

Azalaksh
Knowflake

Posts: 982
From: New Brighton, MN, USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted April 26, 2008 04:50 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Azalaksh     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
"The Clean Energy Scam":
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1725975-1,00.html

IP: Logged

Mannu
Knowflake

Posts: 45
From: always here and no where
Registered: Apr 2009

posted April 26, 2008 05:42 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Mannu     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I also heard billionaires in europe are buying rain forests of south america.
to preserve them.

I think the billionaires in America must do the same.

IP: Logged

Mannu
Knowflake

Posts: 45
From: always here and no where
Registered: Apr 2009

posted April 27, 2008 12:37 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Mannu     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote

The Keeling Curve

Shocking!
I can't imagine how many rain forests we need to absorb the growing CO2 in the atmosphere.

Some body must calculate that .

IP: Logged

jwhop
Knowflake

Posts: 2787
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted April 27, 2008 01:21 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Most of the CO2 which is not in the atmosphere is locked up in the oceans and especially in the cold waters...not in trees.

Plants would love it if the atmospheric CO2 levels were triple what they are now. That means faster growth rates and higher yields from food crops on the same amount of planted acreage.

IP: Logged

goatgirl
unregistered
posted April 27, 2008 10:08 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I would like to add that most of the HUGE subsidies are not going to family farmers. The large agri-corporations (ADM, Pioneer, Monsanto, ConAgra, etc) are bilking the tax payers for those. Also they get tax breaks for some of this as well. Some of the largest farms in Iowa are owned, by Chuck Grassley, Tom Harkin, and Tom Latham...my "representatives"

------------------
The truth is ... everything counts. Everything. Everything we do and everything we say. Everything helps or hurts; everything adds to or takes away from someone else. ~ Countee Cullen

We are weaving character every day, and the way to weave the best character is to be kind and to be useful. Think right, act right; it is what we think and do that makes us who we are. ~ Elbert Hubbard

The simple act of caring is heroic. ~ Edward Albert

IP: Logged

Mannu
Knowflake

Posts: 45
From: always here and no where
Registered: Apr 2009

posted April 27, 2008 07:41 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Mannu     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Goat girl..I am shocked.

What ever also made these poor farmers to sell their lands to the corporations in the past. How unfortunate.

And now most subsidies seems to go to these corps instead of small family farmers because these corps listens to the government and the private farmers don't.


Geez. How unfortunate.

If this ethanol production will indeed do more harm to the climate then this "stupid" congress has already triggered a time bomb. Hope that we are proven wrong. Will watch for all news on this.


IP: Logged

goatgirl
unregistered
posted April 27, 2008 10:34 PM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Well during the 80's during the farm crisis, many family farmers lost their farms. Then the agri-corps bought up those farms. Now what with land prices, it's hard for younger people to get started with farm land going for $5,000/acre and up, who can afford that? Another factor is the urban sprawl issue. The older farmers are retiring, and selling their land, and guess who can afford to buy it? If you guessed agri-corps you're getting a gold star.

It's a multi tiered problem as I see it. And with the ethanol boom, it's just exacerbating the problem. Another issue, is that farmers really aren't making more money with the ethanol, cause as soon as grain prices go up, guess what the seed/implement/chemical companies do? Raise their prices. So the farmer is again getting squeezed. It's hard to make ends meet as a individual farmer.

------------------
The truth is ... everything counts. Everything. Everything we do and everything we say. Everything helps or hurts; everything adds to or takes away from someone else. ~ Countee Cullen

We are weaving character every day, and the way to weave the best character is to be kind and to be useful. Think right, act right; it is what we think and do that makes us who we are. ~ Elbert Hubbard

The simple act of caring is heroic. ~ Edward Albert

IP: Logged

All times are Eastern Standard Time

next newest topic | next oldest topic

Administrative Options: Close Topic | Archive/Move | Delete Topic
Post New Topic  Post A Reply
Hop to:

Contact Us | Linda-Goodman.com

Copyright © 2011

Powered by Infopop www.infopop.com © 2000
Ultimate Bulletin Board 5.46a