Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

I'm not the expert on it but from the reports I've seen the Con lies mainly
in these areas:  
1. ethanol is not the pollution free fuel people imagine, either in driving
or its manufacture
2. ethanol produces little energy above what it takes to manufacture it, if
any
3. great amounts of good cropland is being diverted from food crops to
ethanol crops
4. this diversion is driving up food prices, corn, grains, dairy, beef,
poultry, and fertilizer prices
5. ethanol requires vast amounts of tax money to produce

In a debate I'd put the burden of proof on them. With all the tax money and
hype and cropland and processing plants already going into ethanol, where's
the research proving all these things are not really problems - that
ethanol is actually practical, sustainable, and affordable? 

Biodiesel? Well, how many tons of french fries do you have to eat to make
enough used vegetable oil to drive for a year? And how about all the trucks
on the highway? And where exactly is that much vegetable oil going to come
from? 

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 9/12/2007 at 12:37 AM activism98201@verizon.net wrote:

>Leave it to this most excellent group to present this article.  I had run
>across a precursor article the other day which stated that the report was
>due out today, but I couldn't find anything.
>
>But while on this subject... I just signed myself up to be on a discussion
>panel on biofuels.  Obviously I'm on the "con" side.  Funny, but this
>really depends on one's view of this word, I'm the _only_ one on this
>side; there are several bio-diesel folks (engaged in promoting bio-diesel)
>on the "pro" side.  And what's even more funny is that fact that I'm not
>exactly a public speaker; nor have I any flashy credentials.  So, it looks
>like I'm going to be facing the wolves, but I feel that someone has to
>stand up and present views which are unpopular.
>
>Are there any folks here who would like to help me get myself together
>off-line for such a discussion?  I've got quite a bit of a collection of
>info and am fairly well versed in all of this.  My main arguments will be
>centered on impacts to food production and soils: the OECD report is
>really powerful; so too is a UN FAO study of Brazilian soils (and Brazil's
>escalating importation of natural gas).  I know a fair amount on ethanol,
>but nothing really on bio-diesel, so I need some help here.  The panel
>discussion is part of a larger sustainable energy fair being held here on
>October 6th.
>
>
>-Mark Nagel
>Everett, WA
>
>
>=====================
>From: TradingPostPaul <tradingpost@riseup.net>
>Date: 2007/09/11 Tue PM 11:24:37 CDT
>To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
>Subject: [Livingontheland] Biofuels Offer Cure Worse Than the Disease -
>OECD
>
>
>Biofuels Offer Cure Worse Than the Disease - OECD
>http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/44269/story.htm
>
>FRANCE: September 12, 2007
>
>PARIS - Biofuels, championed for reducing energy reliance, boosting farm
>revenues and helping fight climate change, may in fact hurt the
environment
>and push up food prices, a study suggested on Tuesday.
>
><snip>
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