King corn vs King coal

Energy versus food … Published: June 2 2007 03:00 … FT.com … EXERPTED …

King corn has dethroned king coal as a prime mover in US politics. The result is that there is no sensible policy on ethanol, which has suddenly become everybody's favorite short-cut to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and America's addiction to imported oil. In fact, ethanol's properties are exaggerated and the consequences of the rush to ethanol production underestimated. Not only is it boosting demand for scarce farmland, it is also increasing the price of food in the US and Europe.
The European Commission has called for biofuels to replace 10 per cent of petrol by 2020. Yet increased biofuels production has already triggered a chorus of complaints from the makers of Italian pasta, German beer, Mexican tortillas and US corn-fed beef. Food conglomerates have issued a series of profit warnings, but traditional energy companies have yet to feel the pinch. How to explain this paradox?
The primary reason is that the present pro-ethanol strategy is eye-wateringly wasteful. US corn-based fuel requires planting vast acres of land in order to replace a mere fraction of petrol used in cars. Moreover, ethanol is only marginally less polluting than reverting to oil altogether. The energy required to turn cereals into fuel could, in theory, come from other renewable sources like wind or solar. Yet in most cases, biofuel refiners use oil itself or coal, which causes even more pollution.
The EU's current home-grown options are not much better. Rapeseed and sugar beet are preferable to corn, but are still too energy- and land-intensive. Technological breakthroughs may yet turn switchgrass, wood chips or other forms of organic matter into profitable and environmentally sound alternatives, but better options already exist.
Chief among them is sugar cane, which contains a lot more usable energy than beet. The trouble with cane is that European climates are largely inhospitable for growing it. Other regions - mainly Brazil and some central American countries - provide more natural environments.

Ethanol … politician’s savior and poster child to reduce America’s addiction to imported oil… ?

“We” – that’s you and me – choose to allow corporatists to exaggerate ethanol’s properties and the consequences of the rush to ethanol production is underestimated, resulting in boosting demand for scare farmland while increasing the price of food in the US and Europe.

This increase in the cost of food falling heavily on an already declining US economy, though subtly camouflaged by corporatist owned mass media.

Being content to “think-close-to-the-box” the product of corporatist mass education, “we” willingly remain slaves to the “oil cartel” in a peak & declining oil economy. Not exactly the smartest direction.