[Terrapreta] Biofuels: A Lose-Lose Strategy

[David Yarrow]

this report is a nightmare just beginning.  someone should write to lester brown and steve leahy about our biochar-biofuel strategy as an intelligent, sensible, economical alternative to ethanol from corn.  with the terra preta approach, we have the corn, and the energy, and improve soil quality -- a win-win-win outcome.

for a green & peaceful planet,
David Yarrow
44 Gilligan Rd, E Greenbush, NY 12061
www.championtrees.org
www.OnondagaLakePeaceFestival.org
www.farmandfood.org

Biofuels: A Lose-Lose Strategy. 
By Stephen Leahy, IPS, January 27, 2008

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=wBissZiRYnPuSBj%2FfXXgrFLm4nlJDXYh

U.S. biofuels production is driving up food prices around the world, giving billions of poor people a very good reason to hate U.S. policy, say environmentalists. 

"The U.S. has led the fight to stem global hunger, now we are creating hunger," said Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, an environmental think tank in Washington. 

The booming U.S. ethanol industry is diverting enormous amounts food into fuel: 81 million tonnes of grain in 2007 and 114 million tonnes this year, equaling 28 percent of the entire U.S. grain harvest, Brown told IPS. Previous eras of high grain prices were mainly the result of bad weather, but these price hikes are the result of government policy.

 He said, "We might be the first society in history to use public tax dollars to drive up its own food prices." 

U.S. government subsidies for ethanol and biodiesel will be 13 billion dollars this year and will approach 100 billion dollars for the 2006-2012 period."
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