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.
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
