Underestimated US ethanol craze may hurt poor-EPI - Reuters

[Eugene]

Underestimated US ethanol craze may hurt poor-EPI
04 Jan 2007 22:20:34 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Timothy Gardner

NEW YORK, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Poor people in countries that depend on grain imports
could soon be hit with rising food prices driven by explosive growth in the number
of U.S. distilleries producing the alternative motor fuel ethanol, an environmental
expert said on Thursday.

"Soaring food prices could lead to urban food riots in scores of lower-income
countries that rely on grain imports," Lester Brown, president of Washington, D.C.-
based Earth Policy Institute, a environmental research organization, told reporters
on a conference call. Consumers in Egypt, Nigeria, Mexico and Indonesia, where many
spend more than half their income on food, would be hardest hit, he said.

U.S. ethanol demand for corn will rise to 139 million tonnes by the 2008 harvest,
half of the U.S. corn crop and more than double the U.S. Department of Agriculture's
forecast of nearly a year ago, said Brown.

-snip-

Higher corn prices can also push wheat and rice prices higher as consumers buy those
grains instead. Brown called for a government-mandated moratorium on new ethanol
plants until the country can figure out how to meet rising fuel demand without boosting
grain prices, perhaps by requiring increases in the fuel efficiency of cars.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N04164425.htm

[phantom power]

1. The poor will always suffer first.

As Kunstler noted, "demand destruction" is arriving in the form of poor people dying.

[mediaman007]

2. Breaking: U.S. Oil Prices May Hurt Poor!

Breaking: U.S. Food Prices May Hurt Poor!

Breaking: U.S. College Tuition May Hurt Poor!

Breaking: Republican Policies May Hurt Poor!

Breaking: Lack of Education May Hurt Poor!

Breaking: Lack of Affordable Housing May Hurt Poor!

Breaking: Lead levels in Paint May Hurt Poor!

Breaking: Lack of Winter Clothing May Hurt Poor!


Reuters has some pretty solid reporting there!

[Porcupine]

3. We can drive cars or feed the world but not both.....

http://www.harpers.org/TheOilWeEat.html

Every tank of ethanol that is put into American gas tanks is equivalent to the grain required to feed a person for a year. Every time the price of oil goes up in the US the price of kerosene and propane also rises. Hundreds of millions of urban poor require petroleum to cook the grains that they can afford to buy. When the price of oil goes up the price of grain AND the fuel required to make it edible both go up. When we add the pressure of subsidized ethanol plants to the equation it becomes tragic. Americans can afford to purchase food from the mouths of the poor to place in the tanks of our oversized SUV's.

After Christmas I took a drive down the Sacremento Valley in California. About 4 hours each way on Interstate 5. We had packed 4 people into a Volvo S-40 that was averaging about 29 mpg according to the computer. That was driving at 68 with the cruise control on. (any slower and we'd have blocked traffic) We were constantly passed by large SUV's and pickups with one or two passengers driving at 75 to 80 mph. Americans, knowingly or not, are choosing to roadhog down our freeways at the price of starvation in the third world. Ethanol accelerates this relationship.

We drive so that they can starve; it's just that simple.

edit:better link

[JohnWxy]

4. Do those countries import oil?

[4dsc]

6. What if they do

Corn based ethanol is a waste of food!! It should be done away with totally!! No more tax payers subsidies!!

[pop goes the weasel]

5. or it might help

One problem that many very poor countries have faced is actually cheap imported food and clothing. Local farmers lose their markets and end up unable to hold onto their lands. They then become part of the massive underemployed and underfed urban population, leaving their families behind in villages as they hope to send money back. So, this might actually be a good thing. Or not. I'm pretty sure that the globalized agribusiness firms will try to find a way to keep the impoverished masses dependent on their engineered crops.

[Dogmudgeon]

7. How 'bout oil from algae?

What ever happened to that source of hydrocarbon fuel?

Some of those alga produce over 50% oil by body weight, which can be esterified into an efficient biodiesel -- or even used straight with a few tweaks of the motor. All you have to do is feed it some sugar, nitrogen, and trace nutrients, then give it some sun. Ponds, old swimming pools, drainage ditches, even glass tanks could be used to grow it. And it's got a great EROEI.

There was a lot of buzz about it just last year; so, what happened?

--p!