Re: [Vo]:Burning our food for fuel

[Michael Foster]

--- On Thu, 4/10/08, Stephen A. Lawrence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> From: Stephen A. Lawrence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: [Vo]:Burning our food for fuel
> To: vortex-l@eskimo.com
> Date: Thursday, April 10, 2008, 8:14 PM
> Quite some time back someone on this list -- Jed, maybe, or
> maybe it was 
> actually several people -- opined that
> "alternative" biofuels which 
> require arable land to grow could plausibly be viewed as,
> at least, 
> fundamentally stupid, or at worst as a crime against
> humanity.
> 
> Recently I've noticed an interesting trend: In the
> context of articles 
> on inflation and world food supplies, alternative fuels are
> now coming 
> up time and again as one of the main causes of rising food
> prices.  Just 
> as one trivial example, here's an excerpt from
> today's Wall Street 
> Journal, which happened to have a story on rising
> inflation:

I've been on a continuous rant for several years against the making of ethanol 
from corn, and not just on this list. This whole thing is just plain evil. I 
said it back then, people will die from this insanely misguided policy.

To watch how it came about is a lesson in the law of unintended consequences.  
Although, they are no doubt running for cover or looking for plausible 
deniability, this horror started with misguided and supremely ignorant 
environmentalists. It sounds so nice, so sensible, so "renewable". Hey, we have 
all this corn let's make some motor fuel from it.

Soon we get legislation in response from this. Archer Daniels Midland and and 
Cargill are only too happy to comply and take advantage.  By now, everyone will 
want to lay the blame on them, but even though I wish they had a more finely 
tuned moral compass, the fault is hardly all theirs.

I'm not saying those who call themselves environmentalists are wrong, but many 
of them were wide of the mark on this one. I'm just pointing out that you 
should be careful what you wish for.  What the hell, everybody is an 
environmentalist, including me.  But you must be extremely careful what you 
make a lot of noise about versus what works effectively.

M.

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