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The Alternative Energy Park, under the direction of inventor/engineer Alfonz Viszolay, demonstrates wind, photovoltaic, solar-thermal energy and biofuel production from algae. Call 424-9797 to arrange a tour.
A Sustainable Fuel Future
for New Mexico
Charles Bensinger
Food and fuel are essential life-sustaining elements. Recently, we’ve been misled into thinking we must choose food or fuel. Let’s examine the facts.
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According to the USDA, a dollar’s worth of food breaks down as follows: labor and marketing (packaging, transportation, advertising and profit) costs add up to 81 cents while actual food inputs amount to only19 cents. Thus a recent USDA analysis has concluded, “Increased demand for biofuel feedstocks is responsible for only 3% of food price increases.”
Only 3%? Hardly worth discussing the matter, even if it’s 6%. Why then the extreme vilification of biofuels which offer the only practical, near-term alternative to petroleum fuels? Could it be that certain large national food companies may be seeking to deflect attention from their escalating profits on higher priced food? Or certain major corporate entities may be demonizing a competitor that threatens their dominance of a global fuel market?
Fossil fuels are used in all aspects of food production, packaging and transportation. Recent Texas A&M and Iowa State University studies concluded, “The impact of increased ethanol production on feed and food prices is negligible. Price increases are due to increased global food demand, weather related events, and above all, increased petroleum prices.” “People should complain to OPEC, not to farmers,” the Ag experts say.
Really, we should be talking about a global food AND fuel crisis, not a food VS. fuel crisis.
In the US, corn ethanol is produced from field corn, not sweet corn. Field corn is a grain that is indigestible by humans in its raw form. When field corn is processed for ethanol, only the starch portion is used to make the alcohol. Alcohol is not protein. The fat, protein, vitamins, minerals and other vital nutrients are passed along to the animal feed co-product known as distiller’s grains. The corn’s original digestible energy is preserved in the distillers’ grains that go to make more food for people in the form of animal protein. So, it’s clearly not true that making ethanol from corn deprives people of food.
Presently, ethanol comprises about 6% of all US gasoline supplies. Santa Fe drivers filling up at biofuels dispensers will usually find ethanol blends significantly less expensive than Regular Unleaded gasoline. Besides lowering the price of gasoline at the pump, ethanol is reducing our dependency on foreign oil and yields fewer problematic air emissions than gasoline. And contrary to popular belief, net energy gain factors for ethanol and biodiesel are far better than for gasoline and petroleum diesel, which are both net energy losers.
Some solutions
If we as a nation were truly serious about reducing the crippling outflow of US dollars sent to foreign governments for payment of crude oil stocks, we ought to raise mileage standards for vehicles, undertake a massive national program to ramp up second generation biofuels, develop affordable electric cars and trucks and fund a world-class rail and public transportation network, immediately.
Second generation biofuels include ethanol and biodiesel made from non-food feedstocks such as switchgrass, mesquite, castor beans, buffalo gourd, cattails, municipal solid waste, animal manures and most promising of all – algae.
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