Fuel or Food, Which Do We Need?
As we all know some crops such as corn or sugarcane can be either food or biofuel. Due to fuel scarcity and other environmental issues relate to global climate change, advancing biofuel industry seems to be a popular trend around the world, especially in the US. The government and some organizations are supporting biofuel industry by funding and offering many benefits. It is usually good for us to see such advancement in new industry and working to find alternative resources of fuel instead of heavily depending on petroleum. But is it bringing only bright future?
If we look at the article about the canola debate in Oregon written by Stephanie Haugen, we can see that just to grow canola has many obstacles that farmers have to face. A few decades or so ago, even when biofuel was not as popular as now among farmers, canola was still grown by numerous farmers and it was mainly processed to be oil used for food purposes. I do not think there were many issues back then about growing canola as now since absolute number of farmers were less. Because biofuel industry was boosting, there are more and more farmers decide to join canola farming which resulted in new problems that farmers face now.
In general, biofuels are made from the parts that are otherwise sold as food, for instance, kernels of corns we eat are also used to make corn ethanol. If we have excess amount of corns produced then using some to make biofuel sounds like such a good idea; but it may be deceiving. Because the government is so eager to promote biofuel industry, there are many benefits given to the farmers who grow their crops for biofuel. Guess what happens? Less and less farmers grow crops to be sold as food since selling it as biofuels brings more profit to them from the government and the buyers in the industry. Needless to say, this affects the balance of supply and demand which results in increase of food price. In fact, during 2007 and 2008, food price hit highest in the history which triggered riots in some countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, and Bangladesh. Can we really say we have more than enough food when there are still many people who need support in feeding themselves? I do not think so, and booming of biofuel industry is only making it worse.
It seems that we are up against the wall; global climate change keeps getting worse, scarcity of fuel remains the same unless we find alternatives, yet creating biofuel may cause more hunger. However, we may have some solutions. One of them is to use the parts that are not edible to make biofuel. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries group succeeded in making bioethanol from straws of rice. In this way, because no one eats straws of rice and it is not sold as food, it will not affect the market price of food. Also, research groups at University of California San Diego/Scripps found ways to produce biodiesel from algae. Algae species are quite strong and being able to live in both fresh and salt water environment so it will be easier to grow in many conditions. In addition, its cell growth rate is so fast that it can double the cell numbers in one day, which means we will be able to harvest in shorter cycle than current biofuel crops. There is also another research currently going that is to reveal the secrets of how termites can digest or dissolve recalcitrant substances contained in wood. If they can find out the way, we may be able to produce biofuel by decomposition of scrap wood or waste materials which will be great for both reducing garbage and use of new materials. Although these solutions are still under development to be more usable scale, there is a hope. I would like to see more interest from government around the world to encourage and invest in such researches to make it happen.
Haugen, Stephanie. “Canola Debate Pits Biofuels against Seeds.” News Times. Pamplin Media Group, 16 Jan. 2013. Web. 30 Nov. 2014. <http://portlandtribune.com/fgnt/36-news/126554-canola-debate-pits-biofuels-against-seeds>.
McMahon, Jim. “UC San Diego/Scripps Use Unique DAF Process to Harvest Algae.” Biodiesel Magazine. BBI International, 27 Mar. 2013. Web. 30 Nov. 2014. <http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/articles/9019/uc-san-diego-scripps-use-unique-daf-process-to-harvest-algae>.
“三菱重工グラフ｜ココにもMHI No.165.” 三菱重工グラフ｜ココにもMHI No.165. 1 Oct. 2011. Web. 30 Nov. 2014. <http://www.mhi.co.jp/discover/graph/kokonimo/no165.html>.
Tokuda. “バイオ燃料の功罪：エネルギーと環境を考える 日本エヌ・ユー・エス株式会社（JANUS）.” バイオ燃料の功罪：エネルギーと環境を考える 日本エヌ・ユー・エス株式会社（JANUS）. JANUS, 1 July 2008. Web. 30 Nov. 2014. <http://www.janus.co.jp/tokuda/column/biofuel.html>.
“増加するコメのエサ化とバイオ燃料化.” ヘルプアニマルズ. Web. 30 Nov. 2014. <http://www.all-creatures.org/ha/globalHunger/>.
I do not think that biofuels is the future by any means. It is merely a slightly better model, but still the lesser of two evils. Biodiesel is different because it is made from recycled cooking oil that would otherwise be thrown away. New energy technologies such as solar need to be explored much more extensively. Although I agree with your point that we should consider what we are growing instead of foods, I think that you are mistaken that biofuels is the reason for riots. It is much more political than growing biofuels. Drought is a large reason for rising food prices. Also, the world does have more than enough food to feed the world, 1/3 of the food grown in the U.S. is thrown away; distribution is what is unequal and needs reform. Good points though, food for thought!
After reading this blog and taking this course I feel it is most important to protect two limited resources; fresh water and top soil. By growing plant matter and not using it to feed the rapidly reproducing population we are being extremely wasteful and inefficient. Both corn and rice are very fresh water intensive crops and as we all know corn and rice are in almost everything, mainly processed foods. If we could make a biofuel out of a more abundant resource and start to practice using all parts of plants our world would become much more sustainable and much less wasteful.
Wow! I feel like I just learned a lot in a very short article. This author is very straight to the point with well researched facts about problems with biofuel production and even some promising remedies. It would have strengthened the author’s write up if the author had touched on the whole over consumption thing and reducing energy consumption–particularly in developed countries. Alas, there is only so much one can do in 600ish words.