Hi Everyone,
My daughter is 18 years old, well almost. If I could teach her anything right now (that’s assuming she would listen to anything that I have to say), it would be that we all have to be willing to compromise on certain things for the benefit of everyone.
Does making ethanol from corn take away from the food supply?
The answer depends on whose data you look at. The industry association says no and the Earth Policy Instute says that it is potentially a big problem. Demand is driving the price of oil up and maybe this is what has driven the price of corn up as well.
Right now, we need alternatives to fossil fuels. We have to come up with something that will work on a large scale and corn based ethanol is helping to fill the gap.
Long term, we should turn to cellulosic ethanol, which is made from the woody parts of plants. We could also use cane sugar and the bagasse (woody parts left over) to make ethanol.
There are several companies that are working on this and one commercial producer in South Dakota is making about 1.5 million gallons of ethanol per year using their own proprietary process.
The company is KL Process Design Group.
There have been breakthroughs using bacteria to digest the cellulose and make it easier to turn into alcohol but this hasn’t been perfected yet.
Algae is also being used commercially and this definitely won’t interfere with the food supply.
We all need to cut down demand for fuel through conservation and vehicles which are more efficient. How about using bicycles, public transportation, hybrids, electric cars or even walking?
This won’t work everywhere but it should help.
