http://www.dianaswednesday.com/2007/12/side-effects-of-ethanol-dependency/ Where the world comes together Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:04:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 http://www.dianaswednesday.com/2007/12/side-effects-of-ethanol-dependency/#comment-900 Ethanol Business - Alternative Fuel And Green Business Wed, 05 Dec 2007 12:03:06 +0000 http://www.dianaswednesday.com/2007/12/side-effects-of-ethanol-dependency/#comment-900 [...] After decades of expanding crop yields and falling food prices, the past year has seen a sharp rise in the cost of wheat, rice, corn, soya and dairy products. Continue reading… [...] […] After decades of expanding crop yields and falling food prices, the past year has seen a sharp rise in the cost of wheat, rice, corn, soya and dairy products. Continue reading… […]

]]> http://www.dianaswednesday.com/2007/12/side-effects-of-ethanol-dependency/#comment-24 Diana Thébaud Nicholson Wed, 11 Jul 2007 03:25:47 +0000 http://www.dianaswednesday.com/2007/12/side-effects-of-ethanol-dependency/#comment-24 I offer my "Brazilian-biased" comments. The problem is not the core message (that corn ethanol is absurd, as this is true), but the logical sequence. If sugar cane ethanol could be slowly sourced (to a certain percentage - it is not a globally significant solution) from developing countries based on sustainable principles (like the nice Addis Ababa principles, may they rest in peace), this would be actually great! The idea is not to run cars on corn, but on ethanol. Sugar cane is much more efficient given current technologies… But then, sugar cane is produced by developing countries, so it’s probably out… The larger problem is that farmers in the US and Europe (traditionally sustained by fat and very perverse subsidies) see the corn ethanol as a great way out. Same for the subsidizing agencies: instead of being hammered for subsidizing unproductive agriculture due to political lobbying of farmers used to the subsidies, and taken to court at WTO for this, they can now claim that subsidies are just going to “climate-change-friendly” technologies, which by the way are also geopolitically essential as “we need to control these technologies and cannot go from dependency on OPEC to dependency on South America”… Great solution for everyone. BTW, in Brazil we’ve been facing the same problem for a long time: sugar planters can sell directly as sugar, or channel it to ethanol. When we began our ethanol-based energy project, PROALCOOL, people were scared that sugar prices would skyrocket. Well they did increase somewhat, but not too much, the imports compensated when prices came on too strong, and everything is peaceful now. <strong>Oliver Hillel</strong> (CBD) I offer my “Brazilian-biased” comments. The problem is not the core message (that corn ethanol is absurd, as this is true), but the logical sequence. If sugar cane ethanol could be slowly sourced (to a certain percentage - it is not a globally significant solution) from developing countries based on sustainable principles (like the nice Addis Ababa principles, may they rest in peace), this would be actually great!
The idea is not to run cars on corn, but on ethanol. Sugar cane is much more efficient given current technologies… But then, sugar cane is produced by developing countries, so it’s probably out… The larger problem is that farmers in the US and Europe (traditionally sustained by fat and very perverse subsidies) see the corn ethanol as a great way out. Same for the subsidizing agencies: instead of being hammered for subsidizing unproductive agriculture due to political lobbying of farmers used to the subsidies, and taken to court at WTO for this, they can now claim that subsidies are just going to “climate-change-friendly” technologies, which by the way are also geopolitically essential as “we need to control these technologies and cannot go from dependency on OPEC to dependency on South America”… Great solution for everyone.
BTW, in Brazil we’ve been facing the same problem for a long time: sugar planters can sell directly as sugar, or channel it to ethanol. When we began our ethanol-based energy project, PROALCOOL, people were scared that sugar prices would skyrocket. Well they did increase somewhat, but not too much, the imports compensated when prices came on too strong, and everything is peaceful now. Oliver Hillel (CBD)

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