Saw this on MSN home page this AM. What are your thoughts on this? I don't agree at all..

quote: In Thursday's article Castro said more than 3 billion people in the world were condemned to die prematurely of hunger or thirst from plans by his ideological foe, the United States, to convert foodstuffs like corn into fuel for cars.

 

Pure political BS

 

Yup....B.S......

BUT.......

For those nations with large poor populations with whom the main food staple is corn (Mexico, Central America, etc.)....there HAS been a severe spike in corn prices and some shortages.....and any move to use corn as a fuel source on a larger scale will undoubtably exacerbate the situation.......

One of the weaknesses of the corn/ethanol brouhaha.......

 

Of course, that is in refernce to ethanol, which is very different than biodiesel.

 

Yup....(again).......Biodiesel is mostly processed from soy products or waste oil (peanut oil, etc.).......

 

Ethanol can and is being made from sugarcane - Brazil is doing this on a countrywide scale. I just watched an article on this on the science channel. Their ethanol is about 20% cheaper than petrol.

 

Yup.......unique situation.........Climate to support the crop, and sugarcane ain't a "necessary" and critical food product like corn.......Just about that whole country can grow the cane, and their growing and processing can and does take place all over the country.....and again, it ain't a food product per se.......They've got that puppy down pat.....Good for them....

 

Just like biodiesel can be made from any veg oil and even animal fats, ethanol can be made from any sugar/starch containing plant material. What ever you can use to make booze, you can use to make ethanol; corn, wheat, barley, potatoes, apples, grapes, cherries, sugar beets, switch grass, rye, wood pulp...and on and on... Some things are better than others, but they'll all ferment and produce ethanol. Not just corn. Corn happens to be one fairly good starch/sugar rich crops grown to excess year after year, so it's become the starch of choice at this time.

I vote to eliminate tobacco acres and replace them with ethanol and biodiesel crops. LOL!!! That will make me popular.

 

are we talking opinion or actual knowledge??

I'm not sure but I hope it's bs...over 1/3 of the world pop is hungry right now by no direct choice of their own...it's one thing to 'feel' something is bs and quite another to 'know' if it is...i'm open to learn what you know.

 

My wife and I would LOVE that one. (Allergic to smoke)

 

so what if people are hungry in those communist corupt governments, they could grow their own corn if they wern't stealing land from people to build a big mansion for their dictators who don't care about anyone except themselves. We should be looking out for our country not other countries we have not very good ties with aka venuzela, china, russia. I say tell them to shove it and worry about feeding their own damn people instead of feeding the greedy rich pockets.

 

Who gives a rats butt what Castro thinks anyway? We need to stop trying to be the worlds caretakers and and start taking care of ourselves.

 

I apologize...didn't know i was surrounded by such educated genious.

I'm not interested in Castro either.

And besides, I got mine.

 

Excellent idea.
We need to press non productive land into use, I consider tobacco to be a non productive crop. The best way to stop tobacco production is to end Federal tobacco crop subsidies.
There are, of course, other usable land areas that can be used for biofuels production

Additionally,there are many crops that are better feed stock for ethanol than corn. The sooner we start using them and stop diverting traditional food crops to non food use the less criticism others, like that senile octegenarian just south of FL, can throw at the idea of biofuels.




Opinion mostly but pretty much based on fact. See above comments.

 

So just because corn prices are high this year, we should feel guilty? What about gas prices? Do the oil companys send some of their profits to buy food for other nations? I feel for hungry people worldwide but why is it always the USA`s fault? Lets keep some of our entergy $ at home.