Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Larry Lombard" <ljmelea@msn.com>]

raise industrial hemp.oil/fiber


> From: "Douglas  Willhite" <drwillhite@earthlink.net>
> Reply-To: Douglas Willhite <drwillhite@earthlink.net>,Healthy soil and 
> sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
> To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Subject: [Livingontheland] Warning on biofuels
> Date: Thu, 17 May 2007 09:38:04 -0700
>
> Growing biofuels will not only lead to higher food prices and 
> deforestation, but is a terrible waste of our remaining topsoil and fresh 
> water aquifers. We should be building millions of solar panels, electric 
> cars and a massive electric railway system while we still have the oil to 
> do so. Save the precious topsoil and fresh water aquifers for growing food 
> and feeding folks.
> Doug
>
>   Environmental warning on biofuels
>   The drive to switch over to biofuels could lead to rising food prices 
> and deforestation, a report has warned.
>
>   The government and EU have said by the year 2020 they want 10% of all 
> fuel in cars to come from biofuels.
>
>   But a study by the Co-op Insurance Society suggests achieving this could 
> have a severe environmental impact.
>
>   It comes days after a UN report with similar warnings said that biofuels 
> are more effective when used for heat and power, rather than in transport.
>
>   Biofuels can be anything made with vegetable matter that burns.
>
>   They are seen as a potential solution to climate change because they can 
> reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
>
>   'Radical effects'
>
>   The Co-op report claims there is a future for biofuels, but current 
> targets for growing so much fuel could have unintended consequences, BBC 
> correspondent Damian Kahya says.
>
>   Professor Dieter Helm, a senior advisor to the British government, told 
> the BBC: "The sort of targets being set for biofuels will have quite 
> radical effects on agriculture and therefore will have very substantial 
> consequences for food prices and agriculture more generally."
>
>   The report says that around nine per cent of the world's agricultural 
> land may be needed to replace just 10% of the world's transport fuels.
>
>   This means the production of biofuels could lead to a decrease in land 
> available for food production in countries where famine already exists.
>
>   "People are felling rainforests to plant crops to grow energy fuels, 
> biofuels," Professor Helm said.
>
>   "Think of the energy involved in felling those rainforests. Think about 
> the damage to the climate being done by the loss of those trees. Think 
> about the ploughing and the cultivation of fields.
>
>   "Think about the transport of those fuels, and you start to realise the 
> carbon imprints are about much more than simply what happens to grow in a 
> particular field at a particular point in time."
>
>   Story from BBC NEWS:
>   http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/6650743.stm
>
>   Published: 2007/05/13 04:38:03 GMT
>
>   © BBC MMVII


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