Comments - Latest Popular Stories, Instablogs Community by Agaric

Santanu

Santanu — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Very Impressive ...

Milind

Milind — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0000

I agree on the principle that ethanol is a very bad idea. I had maintained this that though mass producing corn for ethanol can prove to be a viable option than growing other food grains for the purpose of human consumption, it will not be sustainable in the long run.

You have rightly pointed out that filling a 25-gallon tank with ethanol will take as much of corn that can feed a human being for a year (theoretically in terms of calorific needs of an average human). That brings to the question if a human being can be fed with almost have a barrel of refined crude. This comes to almost 75-100 dollars, which is not enough to feed a human being for a year in any given country in the world.

Then comes the question of the food prices that will be affected when industrial scale production of corn for ethanol starts across the major food producing countries. The thought sends shivers through the spine imagining the situation food importing nations (which are mostly poor third world countries) will go through.

Global hunger is a grave concern. Rising food prices will only make it worse.

Osman

Osman — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Rising fuel prices making countries try absurd things such as a fundamentally flawed idea of using ethanol from corn. This is turning huge tracts of fertile agricultural land into ‘fuel farms’ cutting down food production. This is creating further food shortages and contributing to increasing food prices.

As you have pointed out the cost and the complication of the whole process of turning corn into ethanol that has much less calorific value than that of gasoline, I don’t think this is going to last long. In the long term it will be neither viable, feasible (in many regions) and people will finally realise that it is unethical too.

Alexandre

Alexandre — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0000

ethanol is a stupid idea. it is just a momentary fad. it is not a sustainable solution for energy shortages. sooner or later the farmers would realize and go back to their old ways.

i would be surprised though if the farmers who grow corn for ethanol would still get farm subsidies they had been enjoying for so long in the developed countries.

Michael

Michael — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0000

even without gasoline or ethanol cars would still ply the roads. Both ethanol and petrol are unintelligent sources of energy. I don’t think ethanol is as green as marketed by the lobbyists.

I got this gut feeling that a few vested interests are trying to seize the opportunity of the current skyrocketing fuel prices, floating conspiracy theories and trying to make a quick billion and half each before the world realises the donkey behind the idea and shuns it.

Biniyam

Biniyam — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Well...... after this turns into a mad rush to become ethanol-billionaires would the world still see food aid bags marked as Aid from USA?

I do not think it would make any difference to starving countries like Congo or Somalia. Rising food prices hardly affect the most needy.

Jesse

Jesse — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Even if it is not a permanent solution I still support it. The primary reason why I support ethanol is that it will send a signal to the rogue OPEC nations and oil exporting countries like Russia that they can’t hold the world to ransom. Yesterday, the USA asked Saudi Arabia to increase fuel production and if only the OPEC countries did so, fuel prices would come down.

Rising fuel prices is the direct cause of rising food prices. Ethanol is being lamely blamed for that. The world must show that it has alternatives to the essential that the rogues have monopoly over.

Neha

Neha — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Converting bio-waste into bio-fuel might be a much better option than farming corn for ethanol. In India millions of tons of sugarcane fibers get wasted every year. I am sure this is same with every major sugar producing country like Brazil or Cuba. There are ways to convert this into fuel. This must be given some thought.