How are emissions improved using Bio-fuel..And More?

Question

if we use crops to generate fuels, does this take away from crops for food? If so how?

if you have any sites that deal with this please leave it, best answer will be given.

Answer 1

as you may have noticed food prices on things such as bread are going up. bio fuels when you look into it arnt heling a whole lot, or not as much as we hoped. not just because of food shortages, but also because they are plants. being plants when cut down they release all the carbon dioxide they absorbed, as plants convert co2(carbon dioxide) into o2(oxygen). so that puts more into the enviroment, and that doesnt help when we are trying to reduce carbon emmisions. also because more crops are being planted to comensate for it, trees and forest are being cut down, presenting the same problem as the crops of releasing carbon dioxide, and destroying animal habbitat to.

Answer 2

Alcohol is an oxygenator like MBTE but safe if it gets into the environment. Corn growers are NOT taking food out of the mouths of the poor.

http://www.hanskaco.com/index.aspx?ascxi...

Dramatically rising international corn price speculation has led to expensive tortillas.

http://www.ilfb.org/viewdocument.asp?did...

http://www.ethanol.org/news/index.php?ne...

But who is profiting from these speculatory price rises? With all the noise the Media is making trying to blame U.S. farmers, maybe we should look at the owners of the media and their financial buddies. As usual, the real cause of financial strain can be traced to our 'overlords' in the financial district. They think they own us. And so long as we do nothing to disabuse them of the notion, they're RIGHT.

Answer 3

The Ethanol Scam: Politicians and Big Agriculture would have you believe that encouraging the use of grain-based ethanol in gasoline is the key to energy independence.

But not only do all the ethanol-related tax breaks, subsidies and mandates harm consumers in many ways - driving up the cost of food and other goods, including gasoline itself - but the process of making and transporting it uses more energy than the end product yields!

Answer 4

Emissions are NOT improved when using biofuels, particularly corn based ethanol!  To first grow all the extra corn we use to fill our gas tanks with is a dirty process in itself.  Corn requires much more fertilizer than other crops like soybeans or wheat to grow, which is not good for the environment.  

On top of that, for every gallon of ethanol thats made requires 1700 gallons of water!!!  That is not sustainable at all!  

Also there are starting to be reports out that mechanics are finding that engines that have been running fuels that are higher in ethanol are having all kinds of problems.  http://gmy.news.yahoo.com/v/8005145

Furthermore, you should note that one gallon of ethanol does not equal one gallon of gasoline because you only get about 70% of the gas mileage on ethanol when compared to gasoline, so you need more ethanol to drive your car the same distance as it would go on gas.

All of this ethanol has done nothing to reduce our dependance on foriegn oil.  Last year, 30% of our corn corp went to make ethanol, which was about 3% of our total gasoline consumption.  It is impossible to grow enough corn to fuel all of our cars without still importing a great deal of oil from other countries!

All that being said, when ethanol is only used as an additive to gasoline in about 2-5%, it's probably not that bad.  It did first come around as a  replacement to MBTE, which was contaminating ground water and known to cause cancer.

Answer 5

I don't have a site, I have a book.  "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan.  Here are some high points:

- Corn and soy have taken over as the dominant crops because they have much higher yield than other crops.

- Crossbreeding and GMO have raised yields of corn and soy so high that they suck all the nutrients out of the soil.  They MUST be fertilized using petroleum based fertilizers.

- Government farm subsidy guarantees a minimum possible price per bushel for corn, so the farmer's best play is to grow as much corn as possible.  This has resulted in a massive glut of corn and all time low prices.

- Low prices are destroying foreign farmers, whose customers can get American corn/soy cheaper.

- There is SO MUCH corn and soy that it's a problem getting rid of it all.  People's stomachs can only hold so much (though they trick people into gluttony via "super sizing".)  That's why meat is much more common today - lots of cheap animal feed. That's why cows and salmon are being forced to eat corn.  That's why ethanol and biofuels are all the rage.

In order for biofuels to take away from food, first there would have to be not enough food.  That problem does not exist. Yes, Africans are starving, but because of political problems, like warlords intercepting U.N. food aid.

Nowadays you're seeing some market corrections, where food is recovering from the artificially low prices of the past.  A lot of people are whining and moaning about having to pay more for food, but nobody's starving for lack of supply.

Answer 6

WHEN CROPS ARE USED FOR FUEL, IT LEAVES LESS FOOD AND YOUR ENGINES WILL DIE LATER. AS IS THIS IS    HAPPENING NOW.