Re: Couple of new articles: even more impact on barley prices could be coming

Brian Bartz <nasacpa@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:

> Corn ethanol is bad news.  When you figure out the amount of energy that
> goes into getting the ethanol, the deal doesn't make much sense.

It does if you are a corn farmer due to all the subsidies it comes with.
Ditto the downstream processors. Fuel from corn is not about being
carbon neutral, it is about being seen to be doing something without
disturbing the usual big money interests who bankroll the politics. 

There is not enough agricultural land in the world, even if we chop down
ALL the forests to grow both enough food and enough fuel to power our
current trans****t requirements. We need other answers than biofuels, at
least from crops. 

There are other possibilities, usually involving algae. You can get
biodiesel from algae and the leftovers can be a feedstock for ethanol
production. Algae have little cellulose which makes them much easier
than less energy intensive to process with less waste. There is at least
one pilot program in the US using algae to capture the CO2 from a coal
fired power station and a company in New Zealand has a process for
biodiesel from algae grown on sewerage ponds, fuel and water treatment
in one. That's good news for dairy farmers facing effluent problems but
you won't hear about it while the corn industry is so heavily subsidised
and in turn buys the politicians.

Peter
-- 
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www.the-brights.net