Brother, Can You Spare a Kernel?

See Grains Gone Wild, Paul Krugman (NYT, April 7, 2008)
(h/t to Beth for the image)

Comments

[Pete]

Ouch!!...Nothing like a little perspective.

[Brian in BC]

When ideologies clash...

Global warming rage lets global hunger grow

The world is teetering on the brink of mass starvation and the demand for "biofuels" is pushing it over the edge. This is madness...complete madness.

[Mike]

The UN says it takes 232kg of corn to fill a 50-litre car tank with ethanol. That is enough to feed a child for a year.

This is where it gets personal. I look at the above statement and it is clearly immoral and unethical. But as the author points out, if you take into consideration the "substitution effect", i.e., what goes into producing a tank of normal fuel, it doesn't make much difference.

Thanks for the link Brian.

[Mike]

See also Across Globe, Empty Bellies Bring Rising Anger, from today's NYT

[sonja]

there's got to be another way to fuel automobiles.

No joke ... can we come up with a way to run them on pee? there should be a way to run cars on waste ... it makes so much more sense than to run them on resources. this way the constant bathroom stops become a way to fill the tank.

[Adam G.]

I've been hearing about this on National Publc Radio. Sick. I actually feel stupid for not seeing it coming. It is so obvious now higher demand for biofuels would do this to the world food market.