Ethanol and Global Food Issues
Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2008 6:50 pm
March 24, 2008
To the Editor,
If we really care about the millions of children living in poorer countries of our world, and the future of our own children who will inhabit the Earth, then we all need to face the reality of depleting energy resources.
If we act immediately, the human race may have time to ameliorate a possible worst case scenario of global warming, including pollution of the air we breath and the water we drink.
The following are just a few of the concerns that many people including scientists have about the use of grains and corn to process into fuel... However, there are those who favor the production of ethanol due to their vested interest in the industry.
The US administration has allocated 6 billion dollars in subsidies to produce ethanol. Our federal government is providing 1.5 billion to the ethanol industry over a 7 year period. There also are some provincial governments providing subsidies and promoting the industry.
In 2007 the US processed 20 per cent of their corn production (about 3.2 billion bushels) for ethanol. These billions of bushels of corn, which could have been used for food, supplied only 1 to 2 per cent of the total amount of fuel that was used up last year in the US!
The adoption of new technologies, plus some reasonable conservation and restraint in the amount of fossil fuel energy wasted on needless activities, could easily have made the ethanol boondoggle unnecessary.
Greatly increased food costs are being reported from diverse areas of the global village. In recent months the cost of food in Afghanistan has risen 50 per cent. That, combined with the terrorism of war, could lead to starvation for many of the poor in that war ravaged land.
Canada professes to be a Christian nation. After celebrating the Resurrection of Easter, it makes one yearn for the resurrection of our military forces as Peace-keepers, instead of seeking to kill those who our political leaders deem are responsible for the mayhem, horrors and suffering of the wars in the Middle East.
Leo Kurtenbach,
Box 268, Cudworth, Sask., S0K 1B0.
Phone: (306) 256-3638
To the Editor,
If we really care about the millions of children living in poorer countries of our world, and the future of our own children who will inhabit the Earth, then we all need to face the reality of depleting energy resources.
If we act immediately, the human race may have time to ameliorate a possible worst case scenario of global warming, including pollution of the air we breath and the water we drink.
The following are just a few of the concerns that many people including scientists have about the use of grains and corn to process into fuel... However, there are those who favor the production of ethanol due to their vested interest in the industry.
The US administration has allocated 6 billion dollars in subsidies to produce ethanol. Our federal government is providing 1.5 billion to the ethanol industry over a 7 year period. There also are some provincial governments providing subsidies and promoting the industry.
In 2007 the US processed 20 per cent of their corn production (about 3.2 billion bushels) for ethanol. These billions of bushels of corn, which could have been used for food, supplied only 1 to 2 per cent of the total amount of fuel that was used up last year in the US!
The adoption of new technologies, plus some reasonable conservation and restraint in the amount of fossil fuel energy wasted on needless activities, could easily have made the ethanol boondoggle unnecessary.
Greatly increased food costs are being reported from diverse areas of the global village. In recent months the cost of food in Afghanistan has risen 50 per cent. That, combined with the terrorism of war, could lead to starvation for many of the poor in that war ravaged land.
Canada professes to be a Christian nation. After celebrating the Resurrection of Easter, it makes one yearn for the resurrection of our military forces as Peace-keepers, instead of seeking to kill those who our political leaders deem are responsible for the mayhem, horrors and suffering of the wars in the Middle East.
Leo Kurtenbach,
Box 268, Cudworth, Sask., S0K 1B0.
Phone: (306) 256-3638