Will bio fuel like corn/coconut/sunflower oil for vehicles affect the food production?

Question

To tide over the present crisis in oil hike,if bio fuel like natural vegetable oils comes to the rescue affect the food availability in the developing countries?

Answer 1

Look at the food prices that are rising, it is already happening with the minute amount of fuel we get from those sources now.

It is time to stop this silly experiment while we can still afford to eat.

Answer 2

Yes demand is higher so is prices however I'm currently trying to make fuel out of waste FYI NO change in cost and primary on algae for biodiesel

Answer 3

It will starve the world to death.There are alternitives to Using oil products for fuel.There are hydrogen Generators on the market that use water and the electricity from your car to produce enough hydrogen and oxygen from tap water to increase your mileage by 40 to 60 %

Answer 4

plant products used as a substitute for petroleum based fuels are real, and are an excellent way to utilize agriculture to reduce or eliminate the west's dependency upon foreign oil.   Here is how;

1.  vegetable oil used as a diesel fuel, after processing, is an excellent fuel, and does little to reduce the food available on the market.  Here is how, Palmyra is the highest producing oil plant source, and it will grow in large areas of the world where there is a tropical climate, plenty of water, and long growing seasons--this is not a regularly used food product, it is most often used for soaps, and other products...

2.  grains such as corn or rape, or soybeans are food items, however, their cost has increased due to the demand for the oil as a source of energy, and the cost of petroleum for production...these grains will produce about 100X the amount of energy (btu's) that is required to produce them, and after the extraction of the oil, there is still a food product left fit for consumption-so, you can have it both ways...

there are many other examples, do not get mired in the liberal/greenie/g*y/leftist mind set that the west is responsible for the famine occurring in the world today-that is just not the case, and 'wealth re-distribution' as advocated by the liberal dems in the usa mean your wealth needs to be redistributed, not theirs...good question

Answer 5

Yes, the crops listed if grown for fuel have raised the price of food and will continue to do so. They don't help with greenhouse emissions enough as well so are not a good solution.

The oil supply of the world has pretty much peaked and has been declining steadily for all the largest, oldest oil fields which supply about 50% of daily production. Current new oil fields are very small by comparison and number in the thousands supplying the other half of production, including the North Slope folks. Tiny.

However there is a better crop to grow, the best fuel to produce is biodiesel from algae or bacteria, this oil when burned reduces emissions by 60% of what gas/ethanol does and can be produced in the volume required to run the country on them.  All this purifies the water in the end, including removal of heavy metals.

These only require a nutrient and sunlight supply and don't affect the cost of food.

A social solution is to use wastewater effluent, or any polluted river, as the source of nutrients. Being water dependent, the equipment is being developed to take advantage of this process. It'd help to force the oil companies to have a biodiesel pump at every gas station.

Don't expect the oil companies and auto-makers to jump to biodiesel ...

Ultimately anything that is done will not prevent humanity overheating the planet. If we stopped the excess greenhouse emissions, reduced them to pre-Industrial Age levels, we will still overheat the planet in so many generations. It will happen because we put so much waste heat into the world, however you get it, we release so much by so many that just our living produces waste heat.

So, the ultimate consideration is the thermodynamic transfer of energy in our living systems, they all must be revised to conserve energy in any way and reduce them.

Autonomous housing, non-heat wasting electrical generation of power (a nuclear plant puts twice the power output it puts into the wires directly into warming the water it is connected to, this is direct global heating) as a key issue for hybrid cars being actually better overall than just burning fuel (how many transformations of state are required to put a watt in the car), along with regen braking.

Currently the design of products and systems to do this are a joke in terms of investment, sustainable industries will in the end be the winners however, with oil-based economies pricing themselves right out of the market, so, why wait Wall Street, refocus transportation fuels to biodiesel this week and watch those companies grow ...

Answer 6

Many developing countries have more population than their own agriculture can support.  This has happened because they have been given so much food by the more prosperous countries and have become welfare whores.  If they can't feed themselves then their population should decrease.  If we hadn't given them a free ride for so long they wouldn't be in this position now.  Its time for Hatians and other poor people to fix their own problems and stop blaming others for their misery.

Answer 7

Any time you take any potential food source out of the marketplace

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You are going to see one of two or both shortage and or high cost to have that commodity in your kitchen cabinet

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So Now you have to wonder is the important goal of mankind to have enough to eat or enough in our Automobile gas tank

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We all know who is going to will that race don't we

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The gas tank by a mile and a half

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Answer 8

It already has, ever since the stupid government mandate that we burn a major food staple for fuel, the price of food has nearly doubled.  And this has also caused food shortages all over the world.

Answer 9

yes, that has been the problem over the last bit. global food prices are on the rise. thta is why bio fuel will never take off. why our milk, bread etc is so expensive? High gas $ has some blame but that bio fuel is a large bit. bio fuel is not good for country or enviornment. encourage your government to go for electricity.

Answer 10

price of corn is doubled...

Answer 11

It already has. The poor people in Haiti are making "cookies" out of dirt because they can no longer afford to buy rice or corn. It's happening all over the world. So, what did I do? I bought 2 cars that run on natural gas (methane). It's very cheap to fill up, very clean for the environment, and there's lots of it in the USA, so we can keep the money in our own economy. Check out my sources and see if you have a natural gas filling station near you so you can have one of these vehicles, too! It's soooo much better than wasting food sources to make fuel when you don't have to.