Bio fuel. what will the balance be between bio-fuel and food?

Question

i think the problem i have is that i don't know how little of that i pay at the grocery store actually goes to farmers.

consider that it takes 50+ big macs to produce the same amount of energy in 1 gallon of gasoline.

how little does a farmer actually receive of the money we pay for our food?

at what point will there be a balance between food that's used to produce fuel, and food for consumption?

or, in other words, how expensive will steak and vegetables get?

Answer 1

Just buy locally and quit shopping at WALLY WORLD. I've often wonder just how much tax revenue is created from a single dollar. Help me out will you?

Answer 2

One bushel of wheat contains 4.52E8 J, enough to feed one human 2000 kcal/day for 54 days.  At today's price, the farmer gets $10.35/bu MINUS transport, dockage and handling fees.  The farmer's cut works out to less than $0.17 per day (if you eat the same calories in the form of beef, multiply by 8 or chicken multiply by 3).  In 1919, the price of wheat was $2.85/bu.  Until 2007, the highest average price was $4.55/bu (1995).  Over the last 90 years the CPI has risen 13-fold.  If wheat had kept up with the CPI, the current price of wheat would be $37.05/bu. By another measure, the price of a bushel of wheat was the same as the price of a barrel of oil in 1971 (and higher in prior years).  By this measure the price of wheat should now be $127/bu.  Even at that lofty price, the farmer's cut is only $2.35/day.  The price of food does not have to rise much, if the increases went straight to the farmer.  You would not be asking the question if a more realistic value was put on food.  If food were a valuable commodity it would not be used as a fuel.

Now for a final point of comparison.  1 bushel of wheat makes 10 liters of ethanol, enough to drive about 60 miles.  So, would you rather eat and walk a mile a day or not eat and drive a mile a day?  Ultimately consumers will answer this question. At present most Americans would prefer to drive and that is why ethanol plants are sprouting everywhere.    

Dana is right that the future of biofuel is with high biomass crops like algae or switchgrass.  Willow, used for district heating and electricity in Sweden is a better option farther north.  Ethanol is not a good option, but that is where the subsidies are.  It may be worthwhile to start an ethanol plant using current subsidies to build part of the infrastructure for a different feedstock in the future.

Answer 3

dude its a lie, there is plenty of land to balance food and biofuel but other corperations are useing those feilds for nonfood nonfuel perposes such as perfumessss??? like entire feilds of lavender flowers seriouly do WE NEED PERFUME? and im not sure how much a farmer recives useually its the price of what it takes to make and ship the product plus a little extra so the corperation makes money and taxes

Answer 4

Once we start making biofuels from better sources like switchgrass and algae, there doesn't have to be any significant connection between biofuel and the price of food.

Answer 5

Hi Linlyons:

Go to Costco and buy flour, sugar, eggs, meat, rice and milk in bulk -- then, at least, you are getting a closer approximation of what the farmer receives.  The less processing, the closer to the source.

But it is not just the farmers -- it is the truckers, the distributors, etcetera, that are justifiably entitled to something.

The trouble with food, at least the way it is grown in America, is that it is fairly energy intensive, from the fertilzer, to the farm equipment, to the processing, to the transport.

Then when you add another layer of refining crops to bio fuel, you have put in close to what you get out energy wise.

[Biofuels only make senses when then are made out of crops less energy intense than corn]

However most of the recent run up in food prices is not a consequence of bio fuels.  Your steak and potatoes are going up in price because of energy costs, global demand for food and global crop failures.

Just remember that the price you pay for your steak and potatoes, whether we have biofuel or not, is intimately tied to the energy market.

Best regards

Remo

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I forgot to add that both food and energy face tight markets and speculators have driven up the price.  Part of this is probably an overreaction; markets will rebound and price will come down and we will forget about this rise.  But part of this reflects a long term trend.

I also like d/dx's take on this question.