Do you think fuel derived from food crops is bad idea in the first place ?

Question

Now our basic commodities like food prices is now soaring out of control. What will happen to future generations

Answer 1

Yes. Ethanol reduces the mileage of a car, so it's actually costing you more to run ethanol (E85) in your engine. It also burns hotter, which may reduce the life of your motor. Not to mention it's causing some foods to cost more. Ethanol is a terrible idea. Don't use it!

Answer 2

we've always had ethonal in r gas, the gas like premium has less ethonal in it so it gets better gas mileage

Answer 3

I think that in the long run, it will be a good idea. Unfortunately, in the short run, the imperfect World markets have over-reacted to the small percentage of cereals being diverted to fuel and all food prices have risen sharply.

I calculated roughly that for every dollar of mineral oil that's replaced by (more expensive) vegetable oil, the World food prices increase by $1500.

Not very nice for the poor, is it?

Answer 4

Look everybody!  Another chance for the anti-renewable fuel idiots to rant and rave about how biofuels are causing babies to go hungry.

We must have a substitute for crude oil.  Other biomass sources are available for ethanol production, we just haven't developed them yet.

Just because a fuel is produced from biomass does not mean that food prices will rise as a result.  Biodiesel can be made from algae grown in acrylic tubes on the roofs of buildings and houses, ethanol can be produced from switchgrass grown in areas that are not being utilized for agricultural food products, and on and on.

Food prices are soaring because crude oil is soaring.  It takes crude oil to make diesel, which is used to power the tractors that farm the crops, it's used to power the trucks that take the grains to market, it's used to power the trucks that deliver it to your grocery store, it's used to make the plastics that are used for storage, it's used to make the fertilizers that make the grains grow, and it's used to make the chemicals that are used to process the grains.

Should I keep going?  Probably not, the idiots have probably skipped most of this answer and scrolled down far enough to give me the thumbs down.  That's fine.  It's people like them that think we've got plenty of oil at dirt cheap prices and why don't we take my Suburban / Humvee / F350 and cruise around the mall parking lot for a few hours?

Answer 5

While I don't like the increased prices of food and everything else I think farmers should be able to sell their crops to anyone they want to.  For decades farmers have been struggling to make a profit.  Fuel from crops opens a whole new market for them.  Let farmers sell to the highest bidder and end government subsidies to farmers now.  The biggest cause of rising food prices is not fuel from food crops.  It is the high price of fuel to power farm equipment and transport food from producer to market.  Those costs have to be made up in the retail price.

Answer 6

Yes.  A very bad idea.

uu

Answer 7

E85 ehhanol has 34% less thermal energy than gasoline and costs about 34% less depending on where you buy it.

Ethanol production is driving up the price of food. Due to the high demand and government subsidies farmers are growing fuel stocks instead of food.

If all our farm capability were used to poduce fuel and no food were being grown, we would not have nearly enough ethanol to supply our fuel needs.

Celuosic ethanol is more expensive to produce at present but possibly this cost will come down and take the pressure off grain produced ethanol.

Brazilian ethanol imports have heavy tarrifs. That makes american ethanol cost more and ethanol producers in the US make more money.

The argument against Brazilian ethanol was that they would lkely destroy more rain forests to produce ethanol if we buy it from them.

Answer 8

Luckily there is a plant that can produce oil for diesel engines that will grow in arid country with little water, so it will not compete with food crops. It is called Jatropha and is being grown now in various countries for fuel.

Recent tests have shown Ethanol mixes are actually dearer and dirtier to use so why bother?

Answer 9

I don't like the idea of people starving in one part of the world, and people putting corn in their gas tank in another.

And as Christian as Iowa claims to be, I don't understand how they don't see it that way.

I was driving through Iowa last week, and the gas stations have the usual three grades of gas, 87, 89, 93.

But the 89 was E10 and only $3.85, while the 87 octane was $4.05.

Answer 10

At the moment, yes.  Now if we can come up with multiple energy sources to use, then it might not be so bad.  But for a country the size of the U.S. to try and use ethanol ONLY, that would be a disaster.  Just go ahead and study the history of what happened to Brazil when they went straight ethanol.  The second farmers find a different cash crop that will make them more money, they abandon corn... and then ethanol becomes scarce again and then goes up in price.

Corn is one of the cheapest simple foods you can purchase.  You can make just about anything out of it.  By raising it's price and lowering it's supply (for food that is) you make a simple food into a delicacy.  

We should be finding ways to either use multiple sources of energy, or make vehicles that can use multiple sources for energy.  We could have different models of vehicles sold based on their energy source.  Maybe make a Ford Focus with the options of a solar, electric, gas, hydrogen, or ethanol option.  Or even make a vehicle that uses multiple sources.