Will the land grab for biofuels', lead to starvation?.?

Question

Is this the purist form of capitalism?.

Answer 1

Dear Quadstick

Unfortunately politics isn't your strong point. Capitalism increases production as people produce more to increase profits.

Nevermind you could always marry Fidel Castro and beautify yourself in the socialists paradise of the 1950's.

Answer 2

I think the WHO has issues about this, as the amount of land needed to support the world's demand for bio fuel would/could lead to starvation.Not capitalism, just pure greed.

Answer 3

You have it backwards, the inefficient ethanol is being pushed by a socialistic mind set by the GOVT. Would capitalism spend money on a new form of energy that uses more in production than it creates, must be trucked v/s efficient pipelines, causes more pollution in the long run?.

Answer 4

Not starvation as such, but it will certainly push up the price of all foods making a lot more people in the world short.

The crazy thing with biofuel manufacture is that it uses more energy than its end product can produce. But the corporations involved dont care as all they can see are fake green credentials and huge profit. So could be your second point is not far off the mark.

Answer 5

I assume you mean agricultural land being taken from food production and given to bio-fuel production, there for meaning less food?

It is potentially problematic, an awful lot of agricultural land is needed just to replace 10% of our average fuel consumption. And it will certainly change how land is used. There will be no starvation though. At the moment agricultural land is being used extremely inefficiently.

Most crops are grown to feed animals that in turn feed us. It takes 7-10lbs of corn to make a single lb of beef for example. It also takes a considerable amount of water (a commodity in danger of becoming more scarce.) and a couple hundred times more fossil fuel to produce per pound of veg.

Couple this with the bad press meat has been getting (at least in the British press) it is likely meat will become more expensive and a predominantly vegetable based diet will be adopted by many.

no one is in danger of starving... and bio-fuel has a lot of adversity, many claim it to be very inefficient... it may never take off as predicted.

Answer 6

I really hope not.  It would be a terrible crime against the worlds most vulnerable just to fuel our cars.

Answer 7

It would however they will have a war or some sort of man made killer illness which will wipe out huge population ...thus creating land free for bio fuel .....

My gut instinct it will be a water based killer ...oh and of course it will be a terrorist fault....and not the few whom really control the planet ....

Answer 8

Are you referring to the FDA announcement that corn plantings will fall short of demand domestically this year by a significant margin?  Indonesian oil palm plantings deforesting massive areas of pristine rainforest?  Some other related event?  

I do not expect "biofuel" to be a viable means of meeting energy needs long term any more than fossil fuels.  This is a novelty driven by a rapid increase in oil prices, economically unfeasible until now.  Your question assumes that demand for these fuels will increase leading to ever increasing allocation of land to produce non-food crops -- something which will become economically non-viable when food prices begin to rise.