Biofuels to blame as beer prices soar 40 per cent in Germany

[Bozita]

Source: The Independent (UK)

Biofuels to blame as beer prices soar 40 per cent in Germany
Published: 24 June 2007

Biofuels may be good for the environment, but they are bad news for German beer drinkers. Prices in the country's pubs look set to rise by 40 per cent this year, because Germany's farmers are growing less barley for beer production and more crops for biodiesel and bioethanol.

The head of the German brewers' association, Richard Weber, has caused outrage among friends of the annual Oktoberfest beer jamboree by predicting the hefty price rise. He pointed out that the German barley crop has been halved this year and that prices have soared by 50 per cent within 12 months. Poor-quality harvests, caused by unusually hot weather, have not helped either.

As a result, Germany's brewers, which insist on the purity of their beer and offer organic brands to emphasise their green-tinged credentials, have turned over a new leaf. They are now demanding an end to the use of crops to make fuel.

"The energy and food sectors are competing for the same raw materials and the same acreage," said Mr Weber.




Read more: http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article2699083.ece

---

I'm crying in mine at this moment.

[rodeodance]

1. same thing happening with corn here is US-as corn is the raw material for

many food products

[rayofreason]

2. When it affects beer...

...things have gone too far.

Food should be used for food, not fuel. Use the discards of brewing to make fuel, but let beer be beer!

[Droopy]

3. Oh, God yes

"They are now demanding an end to the use of crops to make fuel."

Beer is definitely more important than developing alternative fuel sources.

[Craftsman]

16. So basically you can afford to drink or drive not drink and drive?

Sounds like they ned to plant more grains.

[sleipnir]

4. This marks the beginning of the end for bio-fuels.

This whole bio-fuel craze will go down as one of the more idiotic ideas to hit humanity in recent decades.

It will be a nice little laugh on the way to solar power, but I guess we'll have to suffer through the next couple of years.

[MadHound]

11. The thing is that you can grow crops for alternative fuels and not take away land for food

You can grow algae as the feedstock for biodiesel. Even more interesting, you can use the algae growth the same way many communities do, as the first step in wastewater treatment. In fact you could grow enough algae to completely replace gasoline and dino-diesel usage, all in 15,000 sq miles of water surface area. <http://www.unh.edu/p2/biodiesel/article_alge.html>

I think that this is the path that we need to follow, since biodiesel is clean, renewable, and aquaculture would actually be a boon to our small farmers.

Oh, and right now we cannot power our nation via solar, at best it is a helper tech. However according to the DOE, we have more than enough harvestable wind power in this country to fulfill all of our electrical needs. Wind is the way to go.

[IndianaGreen]

5. Fidel Castro has been warning of global starvation as more food crops give way to biofuel crops

Fidel Castro slams biofuel ‘genocide’

Zoe Kenny
13 April 2007

In his first two articles in the Cuban Communist Party’s newspaper, Granma, since becoming ill last year, President Fidel Castro lashed out at the recently signed ethanol deal between Brazil and the US. In an April 3 article he described it as “the internationalisation of genocide”.

The deal, struck shortly after US President George Bush’s widely protested tour of Latin America, aims to encourage the development of biofuels projects in poor countries, particularly in the Caribbean and Central America, and promote a global biofuels market. Brazil and the US will also cooperate more closely on researching and developing biofuels technology.

<snip>

Castro warned that the increasing use of biofuels by the US and other rich countries will create a global food crisis that will condemn more than 3 billion people to death from starvation and lack of water. Castro asked, “Where and who is going to supply the more than 500 million tons of corn and other cereals” that the US other rich countries need. He pointed out that the current global grain surplus, after fulfilling human needs, is only 80 million tonnes.

Inevitably this massive increase in the demand for grains is going to come at the expense of the satisfaction of human needs, with poor people priced out of the food market. On February 28, the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement released a statement noting that “the expansion of the production of biofuels aggravates hunger in the world. We cannot maintain our tanks full while stomachs go empty.”

<snip>

Biofuels crops are also energy-intensive, due to the use of fossil-fuel derived fertilisers and pesticides and fossil-fuel run machinery. Castro warned that biofuels crops will also increase pressure on the world’s dwindling supplies of fresh water, with battles over water potentially becoming a major source of conflict in coming decades.

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/706/36657

Published on Wednesday, April 4, 2007 by BBC News / UK

Castro in New US Biofuel Attack
by BBC News staff

Cuban leader Fidel Castro has written a second newspaper article within a week, again criticizing US biofuels policy. Writing in the Granma newspaper, Mr Castro said a US drive to back crop use for fuels would raise prices and cause more hunger in developing countries.

<snip>

But Mr Castro wrote that dozens of nations do not have oil and cannot produce corn or other grains to make ethanol because they lack water.

The surge in demand for corn would push up grain prices while the threat of a US invasion of Iran keeps oil prices high, he wrote.

He asked: “Where are the poor countries of the Third World going to get the minimum resources to survive?”

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/04/313/

[OldschoolDem]

10. Castro has a hidden agenda

He just discovered a large amount of oil off Cuba's coast and large amounts of biofuel being used means less oil being used. We can not shoot down all alternatives to oil because Castro says so. I rather pay our farmers for fuel than Castro, Chavez, or any country in the Middle East.

Here in Wisconsin there is millions of arces of farmland available to be put into production, but the government is paying farmers not to plant.

[IndianaGreen]

15. Ethanol is a scam

one that is not environmentally friendly, and one that the taxpayers have had to foot the bill.

[ryanmuegge]

17. It sure is.

[Chemical Bill]

18. Yeah, I'd rather pay to kill people in the middle east.

:sarcasm:

[saigon68]

21. Especially since they are Brown Islamics

</sarcasm>

[Chemical Bill]

19. There was a rabid anti-biofuel...

poster on another board I frequent, until he was exposed as a landowner who was being paid to not grow soybeans. Funny, those hidden agendas.

Bill

[SayWhatYo]

25. How was he exposed?

Also, who is doing the paying?

[Chemical Bill]

26. I wasn't there for the details...

but he was on a government program. This being the internet, I admit it could all be fiction, but he was much quieter after the exposure, without either denials or disappearance. That gives me some assurance of credence.

Bill

[phantom power]

6. It's been amusing to watch biofuel evangelists claim this isn't going to happen.

They continue to claim this, even as we read these headlines. It's already happening, and biofuels aren't even off the ground yet.

[alarimer]

7. They can make biofuels out of anything

why are they using food to do it? Instead of corn, why don't they just use the stalks, cobs, and other non-edible parts of the plant?
What am I missing here?

[Odin2005]

12. 2 words: Corn Lobby.

We should be working on that algal biofuel.

[maxsolomon]

8. Kunstler's been saying this for a couple years now

anything to keep the cars running. what's next, GRAPES?

how about an electric scooter? beer doesn't have to suffer.

[Blue_Tires]

23. is there a scooter somewhere in that photo?

if so, i didn't notice!

[cliss]

9. No, this is actually a good thing.

People only place a value on things they have to pay for.

Can you imagine, millions of people starving, while people fill up their tanks with Biofuel? The SUV is going to get a second, very hard look. And it won't be pretty.

It will become clear VERY quickly we don't have enough fuel for our gas guzzling ways, and people will start conserving.:smoke:

[Nihil]

14. Cliss, you are a wonderful optimist! (Hugs)

> Can you imagine, millions of people starving, while people fill up their
> tanks with Biofuel?

Yes.

> The SUV is going to get a second, very hard look. And it won't be pretty.

SUVs have never been pretty but that hasn't stopped the donkeys buying them.
The criticism of SUVs has been somewhat ugly at times too but, again, that
hasn't stopped the football mums, the single-occupancy commuters and the
"Fuck the world, I've got MINE" numbnuts.

> It will become clear VERY quickly we don't have enough fuel for our gas
> guzzling ways, ...

Yep. It has been clear to many people for quite some time.
Hopefully, it will become clear to some of the ignorant majority too.

> ... and people will start conserving.

Nope.

Not in America.

Not a chance in Hell.

The only time people will "start conserving" is when they are dead.

[Theduckno2]

13. Could beer be replaced by stiffer drinks, Wine?

What are the relative crop costs for "one drink"; glass of wine, glass of beer or a shot of whiskey?

The article also points up one of my biggest bugaboos over bio-fuels.

What to do in event of crop failure? Droughts, floods or diseases could greatly affect a nation relying heavily on bio-fuels. In days of cheap oil it would be relatively inexpensive to import resources to make up for a shortfall, but the days of cheap oil are over. More importantly it seem unlikely that there would ever be significant reserve capacity in a world that consumes energy at the rate we do.

I don't smoke and I don't drink, but I do swear. I, in large part, have Bush/Cheney to thank for the swearing.

[Chemical Bill]

20. Since when is beer food?

I assume that everyone is up in arms about how beer is taking food out of people's mouths.

Bill

[trogdor]

22. The Germans say it's food.

Liquid bread, actually. Can't spread peanut butter on it, but it's good for you. In moderation.

[JVS]

24. This has to be dealt with. Ban all biofuels that use the main product instead of byproduct!

Or better yet, import poisonous crops from China to make biofuel and leave the safe beer-making stuff alone!

[redqueen]

27. Bingo. n/t