Food, Fuel and future: the war between Food and Fuel

Food, Fuel and future: The War Between Food and Fuel

            As the world becomes more developed and populated, there is a concern for the usage of natural resources and food, to sustain the growing population.  This pose the question will we be able to produce enough food and fuel for the future. There has been and introduction of Bio fuel based corn ethanol being the main resource to produce the bio fuel. This purposes the question if we use the land to grow fuel instead of food will there be enough in the future. This paper will discuss the pros and cons of producing bio fuels instead of food.

Ethanol fuel is ethanol (ethyl alcohol), the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. It can be used as a transport fuel, mainly as a bio fuel additive for gasoline.  There are many pros of producing bio fuels such as corn based ethanol. First the production of ethanol will help reduce the dependence on petroleum based fuel. There is use of 10% ethanol gasoline and has been mandated in some U.S. states and cities, that there must be a blend of 10% ethanol. Ethanol is a renewable energy. Ethanol can be made from crops such as potatoes, sugar cane, manioc and corn. Corn is the most widely use because it is easy to grow most anywhere. "Fossil fuel-based gasoline is the largest source of man-made carcinogens and the number one source of toxic emissions, according to the U.S. EPA. Ethanol is a renewable, environmentally friendly fuel that is inherently cleaner than gasoline. Ethanol reduces harmful tailpipe emissions of carbon monoxide, particulate matter, oxides of nitrogen, and other ozone-forming pollutants.”

Growing for fuels vs. food is not the way to go. Food should be the moist important because there is going to be an estimated increase in the population to go to 9 billion in 2050. If the land is being used to produce corps for ethanol rather than food then, how are we going to feed such a large population? The cons especially when it is made from corn because growing corn requires expending energy - plowing, fertilizing, planting, and harvesting all require machinery that burns fossil fuel. Modern agriculture depends on large quantities of fertilizer and pesticides; these are produced by methods that use fossil fuels. Then there is the cost of transporting the corn to an ethanol plant. Where the corn must be fermentation and distillation before it can be used. The first is price, ethanol prices fluctuate on a different cycle than gasoline, meaning that ethanol is sometimes cheaper but sometimes more expensive. This is bad news for consumers because even if the price of gas at the pump is cheaper than gasoline, using ethanol may not be less expensive in the end. At present, fertile cropland, is being lost at an alarming rate, nearly one-third of the world's cropland (1.5 billion acres) has been abandoned during the past 40 years because erosion has made it unproductive (Pimentel et al., 1995). There are about 2 billion humans in the U.S. that are now malnourished, indicating a combination of insufficient food, low incomes, and inadequate distribution of food. This is the largest number of hungry humans ever recorded in history. China about 80 million are now malnourished and hungry, by using the land to produce fuel instead of food is going to cause the number of malnourished people to increase. The food prices are increase because of using the corn for ethanol instead of food. The corn to produce one tank of ethanol based fuel, can feed a human male for one year.

So should corn base ethanol still be produce, not at the current state because it is costing more to produce it than it is worth.  There are other alternatives to use in corn like algae base gases that are more efficient and should be looked into.                                                          

Works cited

Trucks., (n.d.). Ethanol: Is it the best solution? Get to know the pros and cons | PennLive.com. Read your favorite Central Pennsylvania blogs - PennLive.com. Retrieved February 21, 2011, from http://blog.pennlive.com/naturalliving

Alternatives to Corn-Based Ethanol are Coming - BusinessWeek. (n.d.). BusinessWeek - Business News, Stock Market & Financial Advice. Retrieved February 21, 2011, from http://www.businessweek.com/investing/green_business/archives/2008/05/alternatives_to_corn-based_ethanol_are_coming.html



Is food really safe to eat or we taking a risk by eating?

Food and water are the most important things people need to survive.  Survival is the key to maintaining life. So let’s take the food that we are eating is it really safe for us to eat. As American and being one of the most developed countries in the world you would think that we would not have to be worried about the food that we eat. Food security involves prevention, minimizing, or responding to the deliberate contamination of food products by a variety of potential threat agents.(CDC) Food security is not the same as food safety. Food Safety is the utilization of various resources and strategies to ensure that all types of foods are properly stored, prepared, and preserved so they are safe for consumption.(CDC)  

 Some interesting facts from Goldbergs:

•  Each year 76 million Americans get sick from eating spoiled, contaminated, or adulterated food, resulting in roughly 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths
•  Imported food has grown to 13 percent of the annual American diet.
• 98.7 percent of imported food is never inspected by the FDA or USDA, the two agencies tasked with protecting Americans from tainted products.
•  A series of incidents caused by toxic Chinese goods -- from toothpaste to pet food to toys -- have prompted efforts in Washington to overhaul the system. 
•  China exported $4.2 billion in food and agriculture to the U.S. last year, which represents a four-fold increase in a little more than a decade.

            From past events of food recalls such as 85 product recalls under FDA jurisdiction, "36 of those recalls were due to Salmonella contamination of lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, green onions, and ground pepper, in 2010 are just a few.  Website http://www.sweetadditions.net/food-drinks/food-product-recalls-of-year-2010, states the different product lines and what was recalled. With such an advanced country why are we having these problems?  Did you know that 25 % of the food Americans eats everyday are imported from foreign countries: China, Mexico, Brazil.  Also that less than 2% of the food coming in to the United States is actually inspected. (Goldberg) There countries do not have the same standards that our US farmers are now being held too, because of the New Food Safety Bill. Although I cannot state this as fact but herd from a good source there were supposed to be inspector s inspecting the farms in China, to make sure they met codes, but the inspectors were not inspecting just taking payment to ignore problems. This could have been a large cause for food borne illnesses that have plagued the US recently.

            So why do we not inspect more of the food that comes in to the U.S. is because home land security is too busy looking for stowaways, money, drugs, and weapons. This concerns me because if salmonella can spread from one end of the country to the other by a food product that is distributed then just think if, there was a biological weapon placed in the food that comes in to the U.S. and its not inspected think of the deaths that this could lead to. Just some thoughts on where your food comes from. Maybe before we take a bite or buy something at the groceries store we should think about the problems with our food system. Yes, the New Food Safety Bill is supposed to help with this but how effective is it going to be over seas?

CDC - Food Safety. (n.d.). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved February 15, 2011, from http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/

Goldberg, M. (2007, September 7). PPI: 98.7 Percent of Imported Food Never Inspected . Progressive Policy Institute: Defining the Third Way. Retrieved February 15, 2011, from http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=85&subsecID=108&contentID

 

New Food Safety Bill Pros and Cons

Pro’s and Con’s of the New food Safety bill.
There are many opinions on the new safety bill. I am going to go through the pros and cons of the bill to show the different sides of the food bill.
Pros

The Food safety bill was revamped, because there had not been a change in how the food inspections since 1938. The new bill was sign on January 4th, 2011. This bill was written because of the food scares that had happened in the recent past. In 2006, there was contaminated spinach, in 2008 there was salmonella in the peppers and possibly the tomatoes, in 2010 there was E. coli in the peanut butter, all these products made it to shelves and in to people’s homes cause people to become ill or in the peanut butter scare 9 people lost their lives, because of contamination of E. coli. The new bill will make those factories that are unsafe and producing contaminated products shut down. Before it was the choice of the company if they wanted to stop production and fix the problem. The new bill will insure that the food and medications being sold in America will be safe to consume. So that someone’s dinner does not end up with them in the hospital. This new bill is going to upgrade the food safety laws and enforce them. This will also help so that diseased cows do not make it in to the food supply insuring that people can eat food without having to worry if it is going to make them sick or not. The bill is placing $1.4 billon dollars in to the food safety system, a portion going to increasing the number of inspector insuring that, the factories or farms your food comes from are using safe practices, to make sure the food you are eating for dinneris safe.
Cons

Senate Bill 510, will cause the demise of all small farms , because it is going to be extremely costly for small farms to pay for the inspections and restorations that may need to be put in to place. Also this bill allows the FDA, to shut down and farm that fail inspection once, if they feel it should be shut down. The bill will criminalize small and organic farmers trying not to use conventional and screen fertilizers. The surprise inspections will not allow the farmers to fix any small problems that are on the farm before they are inspected, where they could be shut down. If small farms in communities shut down this will cause a drop in the local economies, because small farms bring a lot of revenue to the local economy. $ 1.4 billion dollars is a lot of money, that the U.S.A currently does not have to implement this bill. Also 25% of all food in America is imported from under developed countries and had lower food standards than what we are placing on American producers. How are we going to inspect the food that is produced in other countries, when we can barely do it here in the U.S.A Will this still have to be determined?
So is this bill worth the effort or not. Yes, because it is going to increase inspections, but also can cause problems for smaller farms. So this bill has its ups and downs just like anything else so, hopefully that it helps more that it hurts we can only wait and see what comes of this New Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011. Hopefully this will increase food security of imported foods as well all food produced here in the U.S.A


Adams, M. (2011, November 30). YouTube - HealthRanger: Senate Bill 510 Food Safety Modernization Act . YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. . Retrieved February 6, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ6_EZzfqZc&feature=related

Samad, J., & Images, A. (n.d.). Obama signs legislation to improve food safety - USATODAY.com. News, Travel, Weather, Entertainment, Sports, Technology, U.S. & World - USATODAY.com. Retrieved February 6, 2011, from http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-01-04-food-safety_N.htm

Do American's know where their food comes from?

Although on average a single person consumes 584 pounds of dairy each year, most of them still do not know where those dairy products come from.(farmers) Most think that their food comes from super markets. They do not know about the process of making those products or that those products are produce on farms. “American farmers feed about 155 people worldwide. In 1960, that number was about 26 people.” (Farmers)

Stated by Mario Cacciottolo, 22% of 1,073 adults questioned did not know bacon and sausages originate from farms. People who do not know that bacon originates from a farm are "idiots", according to Mr. O'Reilly, who "eats a lot of bacon". (cacciottolo) "They must be very naive, or just not interested. They're not bothered where food comes from so long as they can eat it." (cacciottolo)

I believe that most people do not know where their food comes from, is because of the industrialization of food. Food is now processed in large factories and then is shipped to supermarkets. But there are more than 24 million American workers in Agriculture, this is 17 percent of the total U.S. work force. (farmers) So why don’t more Americans know where their food comes from. This is because most Americans are so busy now days that the barley have time to fix a meal let alone think about where it comes from. “Packaged Facts forecasts supermarket/grocery prepared foods will achieved sales of $14 billion in 2010 and 2011 respectively, due to growth of 7% during both years.” (Prepared) Fast food sales for the 400 largest U.S.-based fast food chains were $277.2 billion in 2008 (6.8% increase from the year before).  Pre-packed meals and fast food sales, are also the cause of why people do not know where the food comes from, along with the busy life styles.

So how do we help to inform the American population about where there food comes from? By blogging about it and participating in agricultural programs, that bring children from the cities to the farms and teaching them about where there food comes from. Some colleges are creating Agricultural days to inform children about farms and where there food comes from.

Refrences

Cacciottolo, M. (2007, June 8). BBC NEWS | UK | What would Old MacDonald say?. BBC News - Home. Retrieved February 2, 2011, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news

Farmers Feed US - Fun Farm Facts. (n.d.). Farmers Feed US - From Our Farms To Your Table. Retrieved February 1, 2011, from http://www.farmersfeedus.org/fun-farm-facts/

Prepared Foods and Ready-to-Eat Foods at Retail: The New Competition to Foodservice : Packaged Facts. (2010, May 1). Consumer Goods Market Research and Analysis from Packaged Facts. Retrieved February 2, 2011, from http://www.packagedfacts.com/Prepared-Foods-Ready-2694891/