Issue 112 Fuel from food July 3, 2013

We have all heard of bio-fuels like ethanol and bio-diesel. But why is it good and why is it bad? Let's analyze.

The good: Currently we use "fossil fuels" like oil. These fossil fuels are limited due to the amount we are able to access and the amount we have yet to discover. And thus is not considered a renewable resource. Bio-fuels on the other hand are renewable. They are made from plants like corn, switch grass and even oils from animals slaughtered at the slaughter house to make our hamburgers. We basically grow the fuel we need to run our cars and power our homes and appliances.

Neutral: It has been proven (or at the very least debated extensively) that these bio-fuels are no cleaner than there fossil fuel counter parts. Basically they put about the same amount of pollutants in the air. Environmentally speaking, they still cause ecological damage as these fuels are extracted from crops. This means cutting away at forests and other parts of the natural environment to grow them. So it can be just as bad as an oil spill in some instances.

The bad: The biggest issue is that these fuels take more energy to produce than they put out. Think of it this way, it takes a full gallon of gasoline to make just a half gallon of bio-fuel. As such, bio-fuels while bio-degradable have less power out put. On top of this, growing bio-fuels can be considered a security threat. By using more crops to make fuel rather than food you limit the food supply. It is great for the farmer as he makes allot of cash, but it means that to meet out food requirements we have to get it from other countries. This may inadvertently make us dependant on food from other countries and thus controllable. Don't think it has happened before; well it has to small island nations during the age of imperialism. The Dutch East India Company had islanders grow cash crops and forbade the growing of food crops. This made the islanders dependant on food from the company. If the islanders rebelled, then the company simply cut off their food supply. But a more pressing issue may result. Food being grown for other purposes will inherently make food prices rise and may result in people being priced out. Basically, they cannot afford to buy food. This has happened in Ireland (Great Irish Famine) and Nepal. The result was an artificial famine despite plenty of food.

Conclusion: Are bio-fuels worth it? Maybe not. However, the fact that we are considering alternatives is a good thing. Currently wind and solar are still developing but are not efficient enough to work large scale. Natural gas is just as polluted as gas despite the larger number of sources from which it can be obtained. Hydrogen can defiantly work, but it has no infrastructure to take advantage of the "clean" technology. Whatever the solution to our energy woes, unfortunately bio-fuels are not it.