[Biofuel] re: re: tragic abuse of corn
Hello John, welcome Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2005 05:00:20 +0900 From: Keith Addison ok, so is pimentel now using current data or not? if the answer is no, then the question becomes is this chick legit? She's just fooled by the current data bit, like everyone else is. It is not current data, see the message I posted yesterday: http://sustainablelists.org/pipermail/biofuel_sustainablelists.org/ 200http://sustainablelists.org/pipermail/biofuel_sustainablelists.org /200 5-July/001738.html [Biofuel] Cornell on ethanol, biodiesel, hydrogen energy efficiencies http://snipurl.com/ghthhttp://snipurl.com/ghth the blurb about corn syrup is pretty over the top. Not really, the stuff is a disaster. HFCS certainly has much to do with the rising plague of obesity, and worse. ... introduced into the food system in the early 1980s, not quite accurate, as others are saying about corn as food, and it was really the trading system that it was introduced to, worldwide. This was just after sugar farmers among others in many 3rd World countries had been pushed by the World Bank et al into capital-intensive methods on the a! ssurance of US market prices for sugar of around 25c, which dropped to 6c when HFCS got a foothold. Exit several 3rd World rural econonies, with resultant famines in some cases. Indeed HFCS has little merit and is a problem. While it sure has put a crimp on the profits of sugar industry, that isn't all bad. Indeed not: http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/msg26612.html [biofuel] Big Sugar On the other hand, it's just an even worse part of the sugar industry now. As you mention the World Bank pushed a sugar intensive farming practice into many underdevolped countres and now those farms are in some economic jeopardy. In the case of at least Trinidad and Tobago the large blocks of WB and IMF money didn't go to small time individual farmers but rather large corporate intrests which then bought up much of the farmland. This mass purchasing (at 3rd world pricing to be sure) resulted in the displacement of many of these single skilled people to city life and little prospect. This has resulted in a huge shift in economy for these citizens and thus aren't directly affected by HFCS as such as they are no longer involved. Even so they were lucky to have had that option, not everyone was so lucky. Have you seen this? The sugar disaster in the Philippines (and other disasters): http://journeytoforever.org/keith_phsoil.html Nutrient Starved Soils Lead To Nutrient Starved People Now a Philippines government site says this: Negros Occidental's economy was pivoted practically around one commodity, Sugar which made it the country's premier sugar producer. However, when the world sugar prices plummeted during the early 1980's, the economy of Negros Occidental was devastated. From that experience, Negrenses learned to diversify their economy. Large tracts of sugar plantation were converted into more profitable ventures such as prawn and fish ponds, farms nurturing high value crops and floral species, as well as livestock fattening projects. Sugar still remains as the main agricultural produce of the province with about 56% of its land area planted to sugar cane... http://www.nscb.gov.ph/ru6/negros.htm negros Still talking about money rather than food. The biggest problem to these farms as such is actually overproduction! The Negros sugar farms had some of the worst soil problems I've seen, virtually all the organic matter was gone, it was extremely acid, it was dead, nothing would grow there, nor even decay - half-burnt stubble from a year previous still lay there fresh as yesterday. Non rotation of sugar crop has left staggering amounts of land unusable (I believe it's a problem of nutrient depletion as well as nematoad). Non-rotation and over-fertililisation (chemical). Nematode damage of sugar crops is a function of soil fertility. Some nematodes are beneficial to sugar crops but become pests when the soil turns too acid. Corn still requires crop rotation but it isn't as often nor as vital as sugar. My family has some farmland which it leases out and typically goest with a 2-4 year rotation between soy and corn (dependant on pricing to some extent). This rotation is to guarantee the longterm production of the land and not so much to capatilize on market trends. There are many good and easy ways of doing that, and doing it at a profit. Someone should tell the World Bank, eh? Well, I think they did but nobody listened (except maybe some of the speech-writers). It becomes harder and harder to escape the grasp of HFCS but at least through awareness people can learn to try and avoid it. It's happening, avoiding HFCS and much else. Local food, slow food, or grow your own, if you haven't got any land do container farming or city farming, if you can't even do that join a coop. Then again if I'm going to have a sweetener
[Biofuel] Predictions as to crude oil prices, call for discussion
~$65 per barrel US by EOY 2005 IF this prediction holds, then ~$77 per barrel US by sometime in the range of Dec06 to March07. ...and it is never going back down to the ~$30-$40 range unless something very surprising happens. These predictions are based on models I've made which include the effects of the economic growth of China and the US-Iraq war. They do not include what the effect would be if a substantial percentage of the world's dino-diesel and gasoline use was replaced by biodiesel use, nor do I claim to have any understanding as to how high that percentage would have to be to significantly impact crude oil prices. The Biodiesel community should be galvanized by current oil price trends since, even without these predictions, biodiesel should be an economically viable competitor to gas and dino-diesel (Unless Dr Pimentel et. al. at Cornell are correct.). Yet I'm not seeing nearly the traffic on this list as I'd expect on serious efforts to gear up mass biodiesel production: A- Better crop choices, including breeding or genetically engineering for such B- Better production processes, both in terms of efficiency and safety C- Better _mass_ production processes, ditto D- Better engines, including ideas like biodiesel / electric hybrids. E- Better vehicles in general Not to mention conservation topics: F- Getting what's on the road to be cleaner and more efficient no matter what they use as fuel. G- Figuring out ways to reduce our use of oil, particularly foreign oil (using non local sources of energy is not as sustainable as using local ones.) and H- where are the biodiesel mass production start up companies? Why aren'y we hearing about more of them or more about the ones that do exist? ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
[Biofuel] The Saudi oil bombshell
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GF29Ak01.html Asia Times Online :: Middle East News, Iraq, Iran current affairs Middle East Jun 29, 2005 The Saudi oil bombshell By Michael T Klare For those oil enthusiasts who believe that petroleum will remain abundant for decades to come - among them President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, and their many friends in the oil industry - any talk of an imminent peak in global oil production and an ensuing decline can be easily countered with a simple mantra: Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia. Not only will the Saudis pump extra oil now to alleviate global shortages, it is claimed, but they will keep pumping more in the years ahead to quench our insatiable thirst for energy. And when the kingdom's existing fields run dry, lo, they will begin pumping from other fields that are just waiting to be exploited. We ordinary folk need have no worries about oil scarcity, because Saudi Arabia can satisfy our current and future needs. This is, in fact, the basis for the Bush administration's contention that we can continue to increase our yearly consumption of oil, rather than conserve what's left and begin the transition to a post-petroleum economy. Hallelujah for Saudi Arabia! But now, from an unexpected source, comes a devastating challenge to this powerful dogma: in a newly released book, investment banker Matthew R Simmons convincingly demonstrates that, far from being capable of increasing its output, Saudi Arabia is about to face the exhaustion of its giant fields and, in the relatively near future, will probably experience a sharp decline in output. There is only a small probability that Saudi Arabia will ever deliver the quantities of petroleum that are assigned to it in all the major forecasts of world oil production and consumption, Simmons writes in Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy. Saudi Arabian production, he adds, italicizing his claims to drive home his point, is at or very near its peak sustainable volume ... and it is likely to go into decline in the very foreseeable future. If only ... By Tom Engelhardt The price of a barrel of crude oil has broken the $60 mark; a Chinese state-controlled oil company has made an $18.5 billion bid for American oil firm Unocal - the company that fought to put a projected $1.9 billion natural gas pipeline through Taliban Afghanistan and hired as its consultant Zalmay Khalilzad, the outgoing Afghan ambassador and soon to be envoy to Iraq; world energy consumption, according to last week's British Financial Times, surged 4.3% last year (the biggest rise since 1984), oil use by 3.4% (the biggest rise since 1978). In the meantime, Exxon - which just had the impudence to hire Philip Cooney after he was accused of doctoring government reports on climate change and resigned as chief of staff of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (The cynical way to look at this, commented Kert Davies, US research director for Greenpeace, is that ExxonMobil has removed its sleeper cell from the White House and extracted him back to the mother ship.) - has quietly issued a report, The Outlook for Energy: A 2030 View, predicting that the moment of peak oil is only a five-year hop-skip-and-a-pump away; Oil Shockwave, a war game recently conducted by top ex-government officials in Washington, including two former directors of the Central Intelligence Agency, found the US all but powerless to protect the American economy in the face of a catastrophic disruption of oil markets, which was all too easy for them to imagine (The participants concluded almost unanimously they must press the president to invest quickly in promising technologies to reduce dependence on overseas oil ...); and oil tycoon Boone Pickens, chairman of the billion-dollar hedge fund BP Capital Management, is having the time of his life. Over the past five years, he claims, his bet that oil prices would rise has made him more money ... than he earned in the preceding half century hunting for riches in petroleum deposits and companies, and he is predicting that prices will only go higher with much more pain at the pump. Ah, the good life. And if you don't quite recognize the new look of this fast-shifting energy landscape, then how are you going to feel if the Age of Petroleum turns out to be drawing - more rapidly than most people imagine - to a close? Imagine where we might be today, energy-wise, if Americans - and American legislators - had taken then-president Jimmy Carter's famed 1979 moral equivalent of war speech on energy conservation seriously, but rejected his Carter Doctrine and the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force that went with it - both of which set us on our present path to war(s) in the Middle East. Here's part of what Carter said to the American people on television that long-ago night: Beginning this moment,
Re: [Biofuel] Predictions as to crude oil prices, call for discussion
Ron wrote: and H- where are the biodiesel mass production start up companies? Why aren'y we hearing about more of them or more about the ones that do exist? Forgive me if this is a stupid suggestion, I'm new to the list, but here's what I just found looking for info on our biodiesel development projects around here.. http://bdid.texterity.com/bdid/2005/?pg=1 Regards, Gerard, Canada Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned, Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten. * Cree Indian prophecy * ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Predictions as to crude oil prices, call for discussion
Ron wrote: Yet I'm not seeing nearly the traffic on this list as I'd expect on serious efforts to gear up mass biodiesel production: A- Better crop choices, including breeding or genetically engineering for such So you think that genetic engineering is better? As for better crop choices, perhaps you might care to take note of the soybean council's (NBB's) position against imported palm oil methyl esters. The question has nothing to do with sound crop choices. It has nothing to do with the environment. It has everything to do with the economics of special interests. Put soy in its proper place as a low oil producer and you end up with a soybean oil glut due to the vast production of soy to feed the enormous livestock industry. If you want an answer, Follow the money. B- Better production processes, both in terms of efficiency and safety No particular production process is necessarily better than any other, unless you take into account start-up costs of continual processing. Batch plants are the most economical answer. They also meet the demands of distribution, as the fuel should be produced where the feedstock exists, not at some central production facility after having been transported 150 miles, only to have the fuel transported right back to where the oil came from. And what is it that you think production methods are unsafe? Commercial plants adhere to fire, health and safety code. C- Better _mass_ production processes, ditto Mass production is not the answer. In fact, it's more energy intensive than bio-regional production facilities. D- Better engines, including ideas like biodiesel / electric hybrids. Talk to George. One of his very first actions was to eliminate PNGV. E- Better vehicles in general You already know the answers to this one and the rest. Not to mention conservation topics: F- Getting what's on the road to be cleaner and more efficient no matter what they use as fuel. G- Figuring out ways to reduce our use of oil, particularly foreign oil (using non local sources of energy is not as sustainable as using local ones.) Todd Swearingen ~$65 per barrel US by EOY 2005 IF this prediction holds, then ~$77 per barrel US by sometime in the range of Dec06 to March07. ...and it is never going back down to the ~$30-$40 range unless something very surprising happens. These predictions are based on models I've made which include the effects of the economic growth of China and the US-Iraq war. They do not include what the effect would be if a substantial percentage of the world's dino-diesel and gasoline use was replaced by biodiesel use, nor do I claim to have any understanding as to how high that percentage would have to be to significantly impact crude oil prices. The Biodiesel community should be galvanized by current oil price trends since, even without these predictions, biodiesel should be an economically viable competitor to gas and dino-diesel (Unless Dr Pimentel et. al. at Cornell are correct.). Yet I'm not seeing nearly the traffic on this list as I'd expect on serious efforts to gear up mass biodiesel production: A- Better crop choices, including breeding or genetically engineering for such B- Better production processes, both in terms of efficiency and safety C- Better _mass_ production processes, ditto D- Better engines, including ideas like biodiesel / electric hybrids. E- Better vehicles in general Not to mention conservation topics: F- Getting what's on the road to be cleaner and more efficient no matter what they use as fuel. G- Figuring out ways to reduce our use of oil, particularly foreign oil (using non local sources of energy is not as sustainable as using local ones.) and H- where are the biodiesel mass production start up companies? Why aren'y we hearing about more of them or more about the ones that do exist? ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
[Biofuel] The Saudi oil bombshell
Hi all, Now that was one interesting article. Does anyone have any idea what this will mean to agricultural production, particularly in the G-8 countries. Is it time to start breeding Clydesdales or other heavy work horses? I´ve often thought that the Pennsylvania Dutch were on to something when it came to sustainability. What about the machinery used on farms? Can it be pulled by big horses or will new machines have to be made or purchased from antique stores? Exactly how much diesel is consumed by farming and can it be shifted to BioD. It seems like there could be some production lags. Tom Irwin ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Predictions as to crude oil prices, call for discussion
Unfortunately it is too late for the only genetic engineering that would have produced significant improvements of todays situation. It will also need several significant break through to be able to do such genetic engineering. We are stuck with Bush, Blair and the rest of the current set of world leaders and the voters who elected them. -:(( It is no hope for our generations, so let us hope that our grandchildren and this planet can survive despite us. Hakan At 01:21 AM 7/28/2005, you wrote: Ron wrote: Yet I'm not seeing nearly the traffic on this list as I'd expect on serious efforts to gear up mass biodiesel production: A- Better crop choices, including breeding or genetically engineering for such So you think that genetic engineering is better? As for better crop choices, perhaps you might care to take note of the soybean council's (NBB's) position against imported palm oil methyl esters. The question has nothing to do with sound crop choices. It has nothing to do with the environment. It has everything to do with the economics of special interests. Put soy in its proper place as a low oil producer and you end up with a soybean oil glut due to the vast production of soy to feed the enormous livestock industry. If you want an answer, Follow the money. B- Better production processes, both in terms of efficiency and safety No particular production process is necessarily better than any other, unless you take into account start-up costs of continual processing. Batch plants are the most economical answer. They also meet the demands of distribution, as the fuel should be produced where the feedstock exists, not at some central production facility after having been transported 150 miles, only to have the fuel transported right back to where the oil came from. And what is it that you think production methods are unsafe? Commercial plants adhere to fire, health and safety code. C- Better _mass_ production processes, ditto Mass production is not the answer. In fact, it's more energy intensive than bio-regional production facilities. D- Better engines, including ideas like biodiesel / electric hybrids. Talk to George. One of his very first actions was to eliminate PNGV. E- Better vehicles in general You already know the answers to this one and the rest. Not to mention conservation topics: F- Getting what's on the road to be cleaner and more efficient no matter what they use as fuel. G- Figuring out ways to reduce our use of oil, particularly foreign oil (using non local sources of energy is not as sustainable as using local ones.) Todd Swearingen ~$65 per barrel US by EOY 2005 IF this prediction holds, then ~$77 per barrel US by sometime in the range of Dec06 to March07. ...and it is never going back down to the ~$30-$40 range unless something very surprising happens. These predictions are based on models I've made which include the effects of the economic growth of China and the US-Iraq war. They do not include what the effect would be if a substantial percentage of the world's dino-diesel and gasoline use was replaced by biodiesel use, nor do I claim to have any understanding as to how high that percentage would have to be to significantly impact crude oil prices. The Biodiesel community should be galvanized by current oil price trends since, even without these predictions, biodiesel should be an economically viable competitor to gas and dino-diesel (Unless Dr Pimentel et. al. at Cornell are correct.). Yet I'm not seeing nearly the traffic on this list as I'd expect on serious efforts to gear up mass biodiesel production: A- Better crop choices, including breeding or genetically engineering for such B- Better production processes, both in terms of efficiency and safety C- Better _mass_ production processes, ditto D- Better engines, including ideas like biodiesel / electric hybrids. E- Better vehicles in general Not to mention conservation topics: F- Getting what's on the road to be cleaner and more efficient no matter what they use as fuel. G- Figuring out ways to reduce our use of oil, particularly foreign oil (using non local sources of energy is not as sustainable as using local ones.) and H- where are the biodiesel mass production start up companies? Why aren'y we hearing about more of them or more about the ones that do exist? ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] Predictions as to crude oil prices, call for discussion
To those that say that I am overly optimistic, I like want to mention that it does not take much to be smarter than us and the only ones who will have that opportunity are our grandchildren. Hakan At 01:38 AM 7/28/2005, you wrote: Unfortunately it is too late for the only genetic engineering that would have produced significant improvements of todays situation. It will also need several significant break through to be able to do such genetic engineering. We are stuck with Bush, Blair and the rest of the current set of world leaders and the voters who elected them. -:(( It is no hope for our generations, so let us hope that our grandchildren and this planet can survive despite us. Hakan At 01:21 AM 7/28/2005, you wrote: Ron wrote: Yet I'm not seeing nearly the traffic on this list as I'd expect on serious efforts to gear up mass biodiesel production: A- Better crop choices, including breeding or genetically engineering for such So you think that genetic engineering is better? As for better crop choices, perhaps you might care to take note of the soybean council's (NBB's) position against imported palm oil methyl esters. The question has nothing to do with sound crop choices. It has nothing to do with the environment. It has everything to do with the economics of special interests. Put soy in its proper place as a low oil producer and you end up with a soybean oil glut due to the vast production of soy to feed the enormous livestock industry. If you want an answer, Follow the money. B- Better production processes, both in terms of efficiency and safety No particular production process is necessarily better than any other, unless you take into account start-up costs of continual processing. Batch plants are the most economical answer. They also meet the demands of distribution, as the fuel should be produced where the feedstock exists, not at some central production facility after having been transported 150 miles, only to have the fuel transported right back to where the oil came from. And what is it that you think production methods are unsafe? Commercial plants adhere to fire, health and safety code. C- Better _mass_ production processes, ditto Mass production is not the answer. In fact, it's more energy intensive than bio-regional production facilities. D- Better engines, including ideas like biodiesel / electric hybrids. Talk to George. One of his very first actions was to eliminate PNGV. E- Better vehicles in general You already know the answers to this one and the rest. Not to mention conservation topics: F- Getting what's on the road to be cleaner and more efficient no matter what they use as fuel. G- Figuring out ways to reduce our use of oil, particularly foreign oil (using non local sources of energy is not as sustainable as using local ones.) Todd Swearingen ~$65 per barrel US by EOY 2005 IF this prediction holds, then ~$77 per barrel US by sometime in the range of Dec06 to March07. ...and it is never going back down to the ~$30-$40 range unless something very surprising happens. These predictions are based on models I've made which include the effects of the economic growth of China and the US-Iraq war. They do not include what the effect would be if a substantial percentage of the world's dino-diesel and gasoline use was replaced by biodiesel use, nor do I claim to have any understanding as to how high that percentage would have to be to significantly impact crude oil prices. The Biodiesel community should be galvanized by current oil price trends since, even without these predictions, biodiesel should be an economically viable competitor to gas and dino-diesel (Unless Dr Pimentel et. al. at Cornell are correct.). Yet I'm not seeing nearly the traffic on this list as I'd expect on serious efforts to gear up mass biodiesel production: A- Better crop choices, including breeding or genetically engineering for such B- Better production processes, both in terms of efficiency and safety C- Better _mass_ production processes, ditto D- Better engines, including ideas like biodiesel / electric hybrids. E- Better vehicles in general Not to mention conservation topics: F- Getting what's on the road to be cleaner and more efficient no matter what they use as fuel. G- Figuring out ways to reduce our use of oil, particularly foreign oil (using non local sources of energy is not as sustainable as using local ones.) and H- where are the biodiesel mass production start up companies? Why aren'y we hearing about more of them or more about the ones that do exist? ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages):
[Biofuel] solar power breakthrough (we'll see)
Solar Power Breakthrough; New Low-Cost Solar Energy May Replace Gas http://www.rednova.com/news/science/188098/solar_power_breakthrough_new_lowcost_solar_energy_may_replace_gas/ Get your daily alternative energy news http://groups.yahoo.com/group/next_generation_grid news resources forums http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tomorrow-energy Alternative Energy Politics http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Alternative_Energy_Politics/ Google Group http://groups-beta.google.com/group/next_generation_grid Alternate Energy Resource Network http://www.alternate-energy.net 1000+ news sources - resources updated daily ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
Re: [Biofuel] The Saudi oil bombshell
Toward Sustainable Agriculture By Stephen Heckeroth http://www.renewables.com/Permaculture/SustAgri.htm The finite nature of the petroleum resource is universally acknowledged, yet the fact that there is an end to the petroleum resource is universally ignored. Food production and distribution in the developed world has become so dependent on petroleum use, it's hard to imagine how agriculture will function without it. The latest records from the US Department of Agriculture state that US crop production consumed 1.4 billion gallons of gasoline, 3.5 billion gallons of diesel and .9 billion gallons of propane in 1994. [more] Transition Fuels Returning to an agrarian labor intensive economy is not a likely scenario for a burgeoning population that thinks food comes from the store. Draft animals have been successfully used for centuries to increase production. But it takes at least three acres of prime agricultural land and more than 10 acres of grassland to feed one workhorse. [more] There's still the tar sands and oil shale of North America which maybe mentioned in the up coming US Energy Bill. Encyclopedia: Tar sands http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Tar-sands Encyclopedia: Oil shale http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Oil-shale Hi all, Now that was one interesting article. Does anyone have any idea what this will mean to agricultural production, particularly in the G-8 countries. Is it time to start breeding Clydesdales or other heavy work horses? I´ve often thought that the Pennsylvania Dutch were on to something when it came to sustainability. What about the machinery used on farms? Can it be pulled by big horses or will new machines have to be made or purchased from antique stores? Exactly how much diesel is consumed by farming and can it be shifted to BioD. It seems like there could be some production lags. Tom Irwin ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
[Biofuel] Ethanol from CAFTA FTAA
Guebert: Get ready for big ethanol imports under trade pacts June 26, 2005 http://www.pantagraph.com/stories/062605/bus_20050626002.shtml The harder anyone scratches CAFTA, the Central American Free Trade Agreement pushed by the White House, the worse the smell in American agriculture gets. First, it was the creeping expansion of CAFTA sugar exports to the United States. Next, it was the time -- years, even decades -- before U.S. farmers received duty-free, total access to the tiny, poor Central American countries included in CAFTA. Now it's American agriculture's shiny, new star, ethanol, in CAFTA's gun sights. According to a June 22 report issued by the Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy, CAFTA virtually guarantees a rising tide of duty-free ethanol exports from Caribbean and South American nations to the United States. A whiff of that plan arrived a year ago when Cargill Inc., the $63 billion agbiz elephant, announced plans to use a little-noticed clause in the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) to ship sugar-based, Brazilian ethanol into El Salvador for dehydration, then export to the United States. Under the CBI, up to 7 percent of total annual U.S. ethanol production -- made from a foreign feedstock, i.e. sugar from another, non-CBI country, notes the IATP report -- can be exported to the United States duty-free if it is produced in any of the 24 nations covered by the Caribbean Basin Initiative. Years ago that was a drop in the ethanol bucket. Now, however, with the ethanol market booming in the United States -- and Congress likely to mandate 8 billion gallons, or more than two times today's production, of ethanol use by 2012 --the bucket will overflow. Under the CBI, nearly 240 million gallons of Caribbean-sourced ethanol can enter the country tariff-free in 2005; 560 million gallons in 2012 if the pending energy bill includes the 8-billion-gallon mandate. Then, according to the IATP report, once that threshold is hit, the CBI allows an additional 35 million gallons (to) be imported into the U.S. duty-free, provided that at least 30 percent of the ethanol is derived from 'local,' or Caribbean region, feedstocks. Yep, sugar. After those two targets are hit, more Caribbean ethanol can be imported. Anything above the additional 35 million gallons is duty-free if at least 50 percent of the ethanol is derived from local feedstocks, the report explains. Gee, more imported sugar, er, ethanol. And that's exactly what will happen under CAFTA, explains the IATP report (at www.iatp.org), because CAFTA adopts the CBI language for ethanol ... and makes the CBI allowances on ethanol exports to the U.S. permanent. As smelly as that will be for the farmers who grew the 1.26 billion bushels of corn used to make 3.4 billion gallons of American ethanol in 2004 -- and who now own 40 percent of the domestic ethanol production capacity -- it may get worse. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Portman calls CAFTA a gateway agreement that opens the door to the Bush Administration's bigger, hemisphere-wide Free Trade Area of the Americas, or FTAA In effect, the CBI-to-CAFTA-to-FTAA triple play will open the U.S. bio-fuels market to ethanol giant Brazil which, in 2003, produced 3.6 billion gallons of ethanol from sugar. It's a maneuver free-trading agbiz masters like Cargill appear to be banking on. In May 2004, Cargill announced a $10 million partnership to build a 63 million gallon ethanol dehydration plant in El Salvador to export Brazilian sugar-based ethanol into the United States duty-free under the CBI. In December 2004, Cargill and Brazilian commodities trader Coimex struck a deal to drop another $10 million in a Jamaican ethanol plant to, again, dehydrate Brazilian ethanol. On May 19, 2005, Cargill announced it would invest in one of Brazil's biggest sugar processors, a producer of about 50 million gallons of ethanol. The Renewable Fuels Association, ethanol's Washington, D.C., lobby, objects to IATP's assertion that CAFTA means greater ethanol imports. They're allowed under CBI already, says spokesman Monte Shaw. OK, but why institutionalize what could be a flood of imported ethanol with CAFTA and FTAA? On second thought, ask your local National Corn Grower Association director, your county Farm Bureau president or the American Soybean Association -- all strident CAFTA and FTAA supporters -- why America needs to import any ethanol at all. Alan Guebert is a syndicated columnist who writes weekly for The Pantagraph. He lives in Delavan. His e-mail address is [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000
[Biofuel] Negros and the Philippine Sugar Industry
Hi Keith, For about 50 years or so starting in the 1930's, I believe, the Philippines was the beneficiary of a Sugar Quota from the US which bought sugar at above world market prices. Those were the times when the so-called Negros Sugar Bloc was King of the Roost here. The President of the Philippines needed their support to get elected. It was not rare to see a family with hundreds of hectares planted to sugar cane. The latest model cars, gadgets, and toys for the big boys could be seen all over Negros. In 1965 Ferdinand Marcos was elected Philippine President with the support of the Sugar Bloc whose members controlled parts of the Mass Media and the Electricity Industry. In 1972, he declared Martial Law and went after his erstwhile Masters (calling them Oligarchs), taking over their businesses and throwing some of them in jail. When the US Sugar Quota was discontinued, the Philippine sugar industry had to compete on equal terms with the rest of the world. Having been spoiled and grown fat for a couple of generations, most planters couldn't compete and only a few smart and hardworking sugar farmers were able to survive on lower prices for their crop. Many of the sugar planters went into intensive culture of prawns after the fall in sugar prices. That didn't last either. The high stocking rates involved were followed by disease after a few years. The surviving operations learned to stock at a modest rate. I used to visit friends in Negros in the mid-80's and saw how they were trying to cope with the changed situation. It was so bad that the Maoist New People's Army (NPA) were making inroads into the Provincial Capital, Bacolod City. I had friends who had sugar farms, and a couple of them were involved in armed encounters with the NPA. We used to go around Bacolod City packing .45's in a pickup truck with 2 or 3 bodyguards armed with M-16's sitting in the bed for backup. It was really tense then. When the Philippine Agrarian Reform Program was implemented starting in 1988, quite a few of them saw their lands distributed to their tenants but a few have managed to hold onto their properties until now. I was there about 5 years ago and Negros is better than it was in the 80's. They have diversified their agriculture, and established more commercial and manufacturing enterprises. I even know of one who is a Fukuoka Farming advocate now. Wealth distribution has improved to the point where big shopping malls are surviving, if not prospering in Bacolod City. Negros still produces a lot of sugar, but they do so with less profit. I can see them producing ethanol like they do in Brazil when we can no longer afford to import fossil fuels. Regards. Vin Lava Manila, Philippines :: http://journeytoforever.org/keith_phsoil.html Nutrient Starved Soils Lead To Nutrient Starved People Now a Philippines government site says this: Negros Occidental's economy was pivoted practically around one commodity, Sugar which made it the country's premier sugar producer. However, when the world sugar prices plummeted during the early 1980's, the economy of Negros Occidental was devastated. From that experience, Negrenses learned to diversify their economy. Large tracts of sugar plantation were converted into more profitable ventures such as prawn and fish ponds, farms nurturing high value crops and floral species, as well as livestock fattening projects. Sugar still remains as the main agricultural produce of the province with about 56% of its land area planted to sugar cane... http://www.nscb.gov.ph/ru6/negros.htm negros Best wishes Keith Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
[Biofuel] Pressure release
I am new to the biofuel world andhave read most of the webb site info but can't seem to find any reference to pressure release. They all talk of having a sealed system to prevent personal harm and methanol loss but pressure must build with A, heating and B, pumping air in to mix the solution. Question. How are the tanks vented? Many thanks Ian ___ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
