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Using food crops for fuel threatening the biofuel movement.
Last post 05-20-2008 08:54 AM by Voltaire. 17 replies.
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04-15-2008 10:17 AM
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Voltaire
  - Joined on 08-08-2007
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Using food crops for fuel threatening the biofuel movement.
The "biofuel" is "ethanol" mistake is also in this article. I wish someone would get the press straightened out on that...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/business/worldbusiness/15food.html_r=1&th=&oref=slogin&emc=th&pagewanted=print
April 15, 2008
News Analysis
Fuel Choices, Food Crises and Finger-Pointing
The idea of turning farms into fuel plants seemed, for a time, like one of the answers to high global oil prices and supply worries. That strategy seemed to reach a high point last year when Congress mandated a fivefold increase in the use of biofuels.
But now a reaction is building against policies in the United States and Europe to promote ethanol and similar fuels, with political leaders from poor countries contending that these fuels are driving up food prices and starving poor people. Biofuels are fast becoming a new flash point in global diplomacy, putting pressure on Western politicians to reconsider their policies, even as they argue that biofuels are only one factor in the seemingly inexorable rise in food prices.
In some countries, the higher prices are leading to riots, political instability and growing worries about feeding the poorest people. Food riots contributed to the dismissal of Haiti’s prime minister last week, and leaders in some other countries are nervously trying to calm anxious consumers.
At a weekend conference in Washington, finance ministers and central bankers of seven leading industrial nations called for urgent action to deal with the price spikes, and several of them demanded a reconsideration of biofuel policies adopted recently in the West.
Many specialists in food policy consider government mandates for biofuels to be ill advised, agreeing that the diversion of crops like corn into fuel production has contributed to the higher prices. But other factors have played big roles, including droughts that have limited output and rapid global economic growth that has created higher demand for food.
That growth, much faster over the last four years than the historical norm, is lifting millions of people out of destitution and giving them access to better diets. But farmers are having trouble keeping up with the surge in demand.
While there is agreement that the growth of biofuels has contributed to higher food prices, the amount is disputed.
Work by the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington suggests that biofuel production accounts for a quarter to a third of the recent increase in global commodity prices. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations predicted late last year that biofuel production, assuming that current mandates continue, would increase food costs by 10 to 15 percent.
Ethanol supporters maintain that any increase caused by biofuels is relatively small and that energy costs and soaring demand for meat in developing countries have had a greater impact. “There’s no question that they are a factor, but they are really a smaller factor than other things that are driving up prices,” said Ron Litterer, an Iowa farmer who is president of the National Corn Growers Association.
He said biofuels were an “easy culprit to blame” because their popularity had grown so rapidly in the last two or three years.
Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, called the recent criticism of ethanol by foreign officials “a big joke.” He questioned why they were not also blaming a drought in Australia that reduced the wheat crop and the growing demand for meat in China and India.
“You make ethanol out of corn,” he said. “I bet if I set a bushel of corn in front of any of those delegates, not one of them would eat it.”
The senator’s comments reflect a political reality in Washington that despite the criticism from abroad, support for ethanol remains solid.
Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, said he had come to realize that Congress made a mistake in backing biofuels, not anticipating the impact on food costs. He said Congress needed to reconsider its policy, though he acknowledged that would be difficult.
“If there was a secret vote, there is a pretty large number of people who would like to reassess what we are doing,” he said.
According to the World Bank, global food prices have increased by 83 percent in the last three years. Rice, a staple food for nearly half the world’s population, has been a particular focus of concern in recent weeks, with spiraling prices prompting several countries to impose drastic limits on exports as they try to protect domestic consumers.
While grocery prices in the United States increased about 5 percent over all in the last year, some essential items like eggs and milk have jumped far more. The federal government is expected to release new data on domestic food prices Wednesday, with notable increases expected.
On Monday, President Bush ordered that $200 million in emergency food aid be made available to “meet unanticipated food aid needs in Africa and elsewhere,” a White House statement said.
His spokeswoman, Dana M. Perino, said the president had urged officials to look for additional ways to help poor nations combat food insecurity and to come up with a long-term plan “that helps take care of the world’s poor and hungry.”
Skeptics have long questioned the value of diverting food crops for fuel, and the grocery and live- stock industries vehemently opposed an energy bill last fall, arguing it was driving up costs.
A fifth of the nation’s corn crop is now used to brew ethanol for motor fuel, and as farmers have planted more corn, they have cut acreage of other crops, particularly soybeans. That, in turn, has contributed to a global shortfall of cooking oil.
Spreading global dissatisfaction in recent months has intensified the food-versus-fuel debate. Last Friday, a European environment advisory panel urged the European Union to suspend its goal of having 10 percent of transportation fuel made from biofuels by 2020. Europe’s well-meaning rush to biofuels, the scientists concluded, had created a variety of harmful ripple effects, including deforestation in Southeast Asia and higher prices for grain.
Even if biofuels are not the primary reason for the increase in food costs, some experts say it is one area where a reversal of government policy could help take pressure off food prices.
C. Ford Runge, an economist at the University of Minnesota, said it is “extremely difficult to disentangle” the effect of biofuels on food costs. Nevertheless, he said there was little that could be done to mitigate the effect of droughts and the growing appetite for protein in developing countries.
“Ethanol is the one thing we can do something about,” he said. “It’s about the only lever we have to pull, but none of the politicians have the courage to pull the lever.”
But August Schumacher, a former under secretary of agriculture who is a consultant for the Kellogg Foundation, said the criticism of biofuels might be misdirected. Development agencies like the World Bank and many governments did little to support agricultural development in the last two decades, he said.
He noted that many of the upheavals over food prices abroad have concerned rice and wheat, neither of which is used as a biofuel. For both those crops, global demand has soared at the same time that droughts suppressed the output from farms.
Elisabeth Rosenthal and Steven R. Weisman contributed reporting.
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robcam0076
 - Joined on 11-10-2007
- Posts 7
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Re: Using food crops for fuel threatening the biofuel movement.
Using food crops for ethanol production is an important path to utilizing more non-food sources of feedstocks. Experience with current feedstocks leads to innovation and improved efficiency for ethanol production. Pulling the plug on ethanol production for a short term spike in food prices due mostly to inflation, and a reduction in value of the US dollar in world markets does not make sense. Proper education of the public regarding the uses of ethanol and actual increases in prices related to these things are key.
A recent article by the Wall Street Journal indicated that ethanol production resulted in a 15% reduction in gas prices. If gas prices were 15% higher without the use of ethanol, inflation and transportation costs would be much worse. This would have a much larger impact on the overall economy than impacts from rising grain prices.
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dereckbc
 - Joined on 09-18-2006
- Posts 535
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Re: Using food crops for fuel threatening the biofuel movement.
Remember what you just posted and said. It will be used against you.
Dereck In Texas
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Chemical Bill
  - Joined on 03-27-2003
- Providence, Rhode Island
- Posts 2,666
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Re: Using food crops for fuel threatening the biofuel movement.
 dereckbc:
Remember what you just posted and said. It will be used against you.
What, are you against free speech now? 
Seriously, please don't abuse the newbies, even in jest.
Bill
Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world, indeed it's the only thing that has.
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Chemical Bill
- Joined on 03-27-2003
- Providence, Rhode Island
- Posts 2,666
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Re: Using food crops for fuel threatening the biofuel movement.
robcam0076: A recent article by the Wall Street Journal indicated that ethanol production resulted in a 15% reduction in gas prices.
This is interesting. Do you have a link to the article?
The media is jumping on the bandwagon of biofuel = starving masses, and facts don't faze them. I get tired of writing a LTTE yet again for the same old lies, but it's worse to ignore it.
Bill
Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world, indeed it's the only thing that has.
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ccheek
  - Joined on 04-14-2008
- Corpus Christi, Tx
- Posts 88
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this is why i love south texas
hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of acres of land that is a sandy loam mixture, hardly even suitable at times for ranching. jatropha curcas grows extremely well here, (yes i have my own small stock of trees and they are thriving). so growing it for fuel here, replaces no land used for food.
great tree, great land to grow it on. no reduction in food produced by anyone, totally seperate. extremely doubtful any food could be grown there in the first place, and hasnt been grown there in the past 40 years (witnessed by myself). I only wish i could afford to purchase more of this land and expand my crop.
South Texas Jatropha Farms.
http://biodiesel.blogdrive.com/
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dereckbc
- Joined on 09-18-2006
- Posts 535
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Re: this is why i love south texas
ccheek:
hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of acres of land that is a sandy loam mixture, hardly even suitable at times for ranching.
And here all this time the dept of AG, farmers, gardeners have been wrong when they say Sandy Loam is the best soil for crops. Whoever knew it wasn't worth a darn.
Dereck In Texas
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perotter
 - Joined on 07-09-2006
- Minnesota
- Posts 211
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Re: this is why i love south texas
ccheek: jatropha curcas grows extremely well here, (yes i have my own small stock of trees and they are thriving)
Hope it goes well for you. Have you been at it long enough to know what kind of an average yield to expect?
Martin
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robcam0076
- Joined on 11-10-2007
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Re: Using food crops for fuel threatening the biofuel movement.
Here's a link to the publication I saw that referenced the Wall Street Journal article. It's mentioned in an Iowa Renewable Fuels Association newsletter. Unfortunately I did not see the WSJ article directly.
http://www.iowarfa.org/documents/GTN4-14-08_000.pdf
I went to the Wall Street Journal website and it looks like you need to be a subscriber to get the whole text. They just let you view the first few words of the article for non-subscribers. I did find an article there by Patrick Barta that may be the one the information was sourced from. The link to that article is below.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120631198956758087.html
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ccheek
- Joined on 04-14-2008
- Corpus Christi, Tx
- Posts 88
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Re: Using food crops for fuel threatening the biofuel movement.
perotter,
nope. just got started. so it will be a year or two most likely.
and to the other guy posting about sandy loam. i've lived here in corpus christi for over 40 years, there's this sort of demarcation from sandy loam to really nice black dirt just outside of aransas pass (going west), there are a lot of crops there. they grow cotton, sorghum (sp?), corn, and some feedstock for cattle. there are no farms east of that demarcation where the soil is sandy loam.
look south of corpus headed toward kingsville and further to brownsville, the land is almost all sandy loam. King ranch is located there. its mostly grazing land, again, no crops, when you get to the valley in the far south, there are citrus groves and farms everywhere growing a huge variety of veggies and such.
practically nothing between corpus and brownsville though. and thats all sandy loam. so i havent read up on what the AG and whoever else says about sandy loam soil. i only know what i see on a daily basis, farmers will farm on the black dirt. check out the area west and north of rockport-fulton. headed towards tivoli. the aransas national wildlife refuge is there on the east side of highway 35N. wetlands to the east, sandy loam to the west. no crops, extremely few cattle, go just another few miles north of the aransas wildlife refuge, the soil turns to black dirt. they grow cotton, corn, milo and a few other grains as well.
my point is, there may be a farmer or two around (possibly more) that reads what the AG says too and raises crops in sandy loam. there are not many around the corpus area, and im considering the area 90 miles north and 150 miles south of corpus.
so the AG can say what he wants and most likely has the facts to back up a well researched topic. it aint happening here regardless. so jatropha grows well here. why not use land thats not used for farming food, and grow diesel then? unless you plan on buying it all up and farming it of course. no one has farmed it in the past 40 years and are extremely unlikely to farm it tomorrow or 20 years from now either.
South Texas Jatropha Farms.
http://biodiesel.blogdrive.com/
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glover01
- Joined on 05-03-2008
- Posts 3
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Re: Using food crops for fuel threatening the biofuel movement.
I'm from the Philippines and we are a company that has advocated for biofuels since we as a country are self-sufficient in feedstock, at least for for biodiesel. Our efforts, together with stakeholders from the environment, agriculture and health sectors had resulted in the Biofuels Act of 2006. This law, which took effect May 6th 2007 required an initial blend of 1% (yes, B1) for all diesel sold in the Philippines, moving up to B2 and beyond by February 2009. Feedstock is required to be from indigenous sources and since the Philippines has always been historically a surplus producer of coconut oil (we are the world's largest supplier of crude coconut oil which goes mainly to non-food uses) we are making what we believe is the best biodiesel anywhere in terms of technical specifications. Anyone here who knows his organic chemistry would see this. The Philippines is a diesel-fed economy so this law has started us on the road to energy independence, cleaner air and its beneficial impact on public health, and a wider market for our coconut oil, among other things. The same law also mandates E5 by February 2009 and E10 by 2013 with the feedstock coming from sugar cane and possibly sweet sorghum and cassava. The Philippines is also a surplus sugar producer and it still has a lot of available arable land to plant to feedstock.
The raging food versus fuel debate everywhere does not exactly apply to our situation in the Philippines, yet biofuels are now being demonized by sectors who are unaware and who do not appreciate what differentiates the Philippines from other countries. We are already well-planted to coconut, a low-maintenance tropical tree which lives and produces oil for 40-50 years so there is no issue about negative carbon which afflicts other biodiesel feedstocks like rapeseed and soya. Our sugar areas are well-delineated and do not conflict with staple crops like rice and corn. And, as mentioned, we still have a lot of virgin open agricultural land that can sustain both biofuels and food production. Our country is also in the early stages of propagating jathropa, a non-food oilcrop that grows on marginal land, that can be an alternative feedstock for biodiesel for industrial use. Our Biofuels Law has built-in safety and regulatory mechanisms that will prevent food versus fuel conflicts down the road once we move up to higher mandated blend levels. This was recently lauded at the April 2008 BioEnergy conference in Bangkok, Thailand:
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Inquirer Money / Breaking
News
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| http://business.inquirer.net/money/topstories/view/20080503-134286/Philippine-biofuels-law-a-model-for-other-countries |
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Philippine biofuels law a model for other countries
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By Abigail L. Ho
Philippine Daily Inquirer |
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Posted date: May 03, 2008 |
MANILA, Philippines—The Biofuels Act of 2006 has become a model for
other countries to emulate, as the Philippines is so far the country with the
most “decisive” mandate on the use of biofuels in the world, according to
findings at a recent international conference.
According to an executive summary on the recently concluded Bioenergy Forum
2008 in Bangkok, the Philippines is at the forefront of biofuels development and
use in the world.
There were 94 delegates who attended the conference, including researchers,
government policy makers, biofuels stakeholders, oil company officials,
agronomists and academicians from the United States, United Kingdom, Austria,
New Zealand, France, Taiwan, India, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and
the Philippines.
“While other Asian countries have been unclear with their policies on how to
promote their national biofuels policy, the Philippines has been the model for
its decisive mandate on the use of coco-biodiesel and fuel-ethanol, through
Republic Act 9367, also known as the Biofuels Act of 2006,” the conference brief
said.
“It is important to note that the Philippine Biofuels Act was crafted so that
the feedstocks needed for biofuel production will not compete with the demands
for food,” it added.
At present, local biodiesel manufacturers are able to meet the mandated
one-percent biodiesel blend without having to clear new land for planting
coconut trees.
Coconut oil used as biodiesel feedstock is derived from existing
farmlands.
The conference mainly discussed concerns in the United States and Europe on
how increasing biofuels production was threatening global food supply, and how
renewable fuels could be produced without sacrificing food security.
It was determined during the conference that biofuels production was not the
main culprit behind the increase in food prices, particularly in the United
States and Europe.
“The panel concluded that the rise in food prices, particularly grains,
vegetable oils, wheat and rice, cannot be attributed to the production of
biofuels alone,” the executive summary said. “These were compounded by more
influential factors.”
These factors included market speculation, changing weather patterns, rapid
economic growth of China and India, government controls on food products, and
general increase in food consumption worldwide.
“Generally, the demand for food outgrew the supply, and this has strained the
supply, hence the much higher prices brought by shortages,” the conference
summary said.
“Again, the influence of biofuels is not the only factor. It was just a
contributor.” | | |
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dereckbc
- Joined on 09-18-2006
- Posts 535
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Re: Using food crops for fuel threatening the biofuel movement.
ccheek, I think you might be mistaken on your soil type. Loam is defined as:
Loam is soil composed of sand, silt, and clay in relatively even concentration (about 40-40-20% concentration respectively), considered ideal for gardening and agricultural uses. Loam soils generally contain more nutrients and humus than sandy soils, have better infiltration and drainage than silty soils, and are easier to till than clayey soils.
Loams are gritty, plastic when moist, and retain water easily. In addition to the term loam, different names are given to soils with slightly different proportions of sand, silt, and clay: sandy loam, silty loam, clay loam, sandy clay loam, silty clay loam, and loam.
The areas of Texas you are describing are just sandy soils which are worthless for crops.
Dereck In Texas
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natescape
 - Joined on 01-14-2002
- Between Providence and Cape Cod
- Posts 4,587
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Re: Using food crops for fuel threatening the biofuel movement.
New crops are changing the food vs. fuel debate. Article here.
New crops change food vs. fuel debate
By ROSALIE WESTENSKOW, UPI Correspondent CHICAGO, May 2 (UPI) -- As
oil prices rise and food-based ethanol appears increasingly
unsustainable, companies are scrambling to find new energy crops for
the next generation of biofuels.
The development of feedstocks
to replace corn is crucial for wide-scale biofuels production, said
Steve Koonin, chief scientist for BP, a global petroleum company.
"If
you used all the corn in the world and converted it with 100 percent
efficiency to biofuels … you might be able to (replace) 15 percent of
transport fuels," Koonin said at the World Congress on Industrial
Biotechnology and Bioprocessing, held this week in Chicago. "(But) if
you want carbon beyond petroleum, you're either going to dig it out of
the ground as coal or get it from biomass, and that, I think, is a
powerful argument for biofuels."
So how can these two
conflicting needs -- fuel and food -- be reconciled? With crops
specifically designed for fuel production, according to Koonin and
others.
These "dedicated energy" crops are just emerging on
the marketplace, with many still in development stages. This week the
chief executive officer of California-based energy company Ceres Inc.
announced the release of the first line of commercially available
energy crops under the trade name Blade.
"Blade will be the
first multi-crop seed brand supplying the new market for non-food,
low-carbon biofuels feedstocks," Richard Hamilton, Ceres CEO, said
Tuesday at the Biotechnology World Congress.
Energy crops hold
potential as feedstock alternatives because of their ability to
increase yields, both in tons of biomass per acre and gallons of fuel
per ton of biomass.
"From both an economic and environmental
perspective, if we are going to turn plant matter into fuel, we should
use feedstocks that give us the maximum fuel yield per acre," Hamilton
said.
Crops like the Blade varieties are engineered
specifically for biofuels purposes through genomics-based breeding,
wherein scientists manipulate the organisms by selecting and breeding
for desirable traits. The same techniques have already been used to
dramatically raise yields in food crops by increasing drought and pest
resistance, among other things.
Many varieties are offered
through the Blade brand, mostly sorghum and switchgrass plants. The
crops purportedly use less water and can be grown on marginal land.
Ceres
expects to sell the new varieties to farmers, many of whom hope growing
the crops will attract a biofuels plant to their area, thus
guaranteeing a steady buyer for their goods. Biorefineries themselves
represent the other potential customer, as a number of companies are
currently building pilot plants, with the help of grants from the
Department of Energy, to produce fuel from non-food sources, called
cellulosic ethanol.
In order for these new biorefineries,
expected to be fully operating by 2012, to produce cellulosic ethanol,
they need a steady supply of feedstock. That means dedicated energy
crops need to go into the ground soon, said Gary Koppenjan, Ceres
corporate communications manager.
"One of the things about
perennial crops is that you need one to two years to get them
established before you can use them for feedstocks," Koppenjan told
United Press International. "So if you want to have a biorefinery
established in 2011, you need to get crops planted as soon as possible."
Other
companies are also working to release energy crops in the next couple
years, including Targeted Growth Inc., a Seattle-based company. Company
scientists have discovered a method of increasing the biomass, and, as
a result, fuel potential, of crops by blocking the gene in plants that
stops cell divisions, said CEO Thomas Todaro.
"There's clear evidence … that just by inhibiting that gene, we're able to get dramatic yield increases," Todaro said.
The
company has a number of products in the early stages, including a corn
variety that grows 8 or 9 feet tall, with much higher yields per acre.
"The
idea is that we can bring a high-sugar crop to the Midwest and solve
the food versus fuel debate by putting three to four times as many
ethanol-producing crops on each acre," Todaro said.
But the
ultimate goal should be to transition away from traditional
agricultural lands, said Gerald Bange, chairman of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture's World Agricultural Outlook Board.
"There's a
lot of things one would have to consider on this, but the hope is that
cellulosic ethanol will come from land not currently being used for
crops," Bange told UPI.
Other Targeted Growth products, such as
a plant called camelina, could be used for marginal lands, such as dry
areas of Texas or California.
U.S. companies aren't the only
ones looking at cultivating crops on non-agricultural lands. The Indian
government has begun an initiative to grow jatropha, a hardy plant that
has high potential as a feedstock for cellulosic ethanol, said Ashok
Dhawan of CCS Haryana Agricultural University in Hisar, India.
"We
have 100 million hectares (247 million acres) of wastelands in India,"
Dhawan said. "The mission of the government of India is to convert our
wastelands into oilfields through jatropha."
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perotter
- Joined on 07-09-2006
- Minnesota
- Posts 211
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Re: Using food crops for fuel threatening the biofuel movement.
I go to the Philippines when I can & do have a few $ invested there.
Must be a surplus of coconuts there. A friend called last week & said that the island that his wife & he have a farm on has 1000's of hectares fo coconuts that aren't harvested & are going to waste. I couldn't convince him to check into using them for bd. I've had better luck talking about gasifiers for cooking.
As far as I have found, the 1st large scale production & use of biodiesel was in the Philippines during the WW2 era.
Martin
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ccheek
- Joined on 04-14-2008
- Corpus Christi, Tx
- Posts 88
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Re: Using food crops for fuel threatening the biofuel movement.
dereckbc,
you are absolutely right, I did some more checking, i dont remember why but i had always thought of this part of texas as sandy loam. but the areas im looking to buy some acreage are just plain sand, if you get down between 2 and say 5 feet, there is clay, (some spots deeper like where my dad had dug out a pond, that was about 11 feet down till you hit clay).
in my mind this is the great thing about it though, the only things that grow there are scrub oak and johnson grass (well, some others as well, like mesquite and i recall seeing a grape vine or two (texas wine bites) ).
the jatropha curcas is thriving there like its heaven though. so, im just taking land thats poorly desired for practically any type of crop and growing bio-diesel.
thanks for the help in clearing up the soil type. i love learning something new ever day, keeps me thinking that i can still learn even more.
South Texas Jatropha Farms.
http://biodiesel.blogdrive.com/
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froggy
  - Joined on 03-07-2006
- wi
- Posts 1,875
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Re: Using food crops for fuel threatening the biofuel movement.
dereckbc: The areas of Texas you are describing are just sandy soils which are worthless for crops.
Terra Preta
Those that live by the sword, die by the sword. Id rather die of cholesterol from all the butter Im making and selling...
froggy in Wisconsin
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dereckbc
- Joined on 09-18-2006
- Posts 535
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Re: Using food crops for fuel threatening the biofuel movement.
Froggy what does Amazon dark soil have to do with anything?
Dereck In Texas
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Voltaire
- Joined on 08-08-2007
- Posts 645
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Re: Using food crops for fuel threatening the biofuel movement.
The development of feedstocks to replace corn is crucial for wide-scale biofuels production, said Steve Koonin, chief scientist for BP, a global petroleum company.
"If you used all the corn in the world and converted it with 100 percent efficiency to biofuels … you might be able to (replace) 15 percent of transport fuels," Koonin said at the World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and Bioprocessing, held this week in Chicago. "(But) if you want carbon beyond petroleum, you're either going to dig it out of the ground as coal or get it from biomass, and that, I think, is a powerful argument for biofuels."
So how can these two conflicting needs -- fuel and food -- be reconciled? With crops specifically designed for fuel production, according to Koonin and others.
Crops like the Blade varieties are engineered specifically for biofuels purposes through genomics-based breeding, wherein scientists manipulate the organisms by selecting and breeding for desirable traits. The same techniques have already been used to dramatically raise yields in food crops by increasing drought and pest resistance, among other things.
Exactly what I have been advocating since my first posts here. Now let's hope people wise up and realize
1= that "biofuel" is not the same as ethanol
2= that ethanol, even cellulosic ethanol, is not the best liquid fuel replacement for petroleum. bd is.
3= that they should be applying selective breeding and gene mod techniques to making better bd oil source crops.
...and let's hope we do it soon enough.
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