Farms cannot feed all the world’s people and its motor vehicles as well, and the result is that more people will go hungry. Don't you think?
The mouth of your car is a monster compared to your family's stomache needs. I'm sure it may even affect world hunger at some point.
2006-07-08 16:50:43 · 9 answers · asked by Rick 7 in Environment
No, actually you are wrong. The most volumous sources of biomass that can be made into ethanol are not items you can eat. I'm speaking of grass, corn stalks, etc. Around 80 or 90 percent of corn stalks are left to rot on the field every year. Corn stalks typically have the same dry weight as the seed they produce.
And if in the future the government would start setting up massive irrigation systems, we could start producing at a level that would be huge compared to our current level. Also if equipment was made to start polling up root systems, that would yet again double the amount of biomass there is to work with. The possiblities are out there, it is simply up to us to realize and implement them.
2006-07-11 17:23:26 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I see your point. Early studies indicate that ethanol production can reach a maximum of about 1/3 to 1/2 of our current oil production without disrupting farm production.
That is obviously less than we would need if we continue to drive the same kinds of cars. The solution to that problem is to switch to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. PHEV's can get between 4X and 10X higher mileage than current vehicles. With mileage that much higher the amount of ethanol is adequate.
Ethanol can be made from a number of materials such as woody plants that will grow in areas that are not suitable for regular farming. Also farm waste and garbage can be used to make ethanol. Using all these sources will be necessary and will prevent a competition for land between food and fuel.
2006-07-09 00:01:59 · answer #2 · answered by Engineer 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Did you watch Cspan the other day? They had the history of the economic's of oil and future answers with none other then the master of economics, Alan Greenspan! It was awesome dood. They went over oil, saying demand has increased since the 1960's while supply has decreased. Celulex is the fuel they are developing for the future. Ethanol is outdated. I misspelled it I am sure. The government is a joke, they can grow help and make a fuel out of that. Hemp takes much less water then corn, doesn't mess up the soil, etc. etc. etc. We have so much corn that it wouldn't really matter. Also Monsanto could geneticially engineer a super corn for fuel. If you don't know Monsanto is the #1 genetic engineering company in the world for food.
2006-07-08 23:56:53 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I live in the corn belt and the farmers will just grow more corn. There is alot of land out there to plant crops in. Don't worry nobody will starve just because of ethanol. They are making cars that run on E-85 which is 85% ethanol and 15% gas now and I think it's great because then we won't have to rely on the oil supply which is going to run out someday. We can always plant more corn.
2006-07-08 23:59:04 · answer #4 · answered by unicornfarie1 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ethanol can be made from other materials than corn such as wood chips, switch grass, and even trash. If we were to rely on corn based ethanol for our automobile fuel that would probably put a strain on food supplies.
The best answer is to decrease demand by using more human powered transportation.
2006-07-09 01:15:53 · answer #5 · answered by Report Abuse 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i am not a chemist but from my limited knowledge about ethanol is that it is an additive that helps reduce the pollution from gas. i might be wrong but i dont think that the current engines could run effectivly on pure ethonal. and as far as gas goes the would burn natural gas way before they turned to pure ethonal, why?,,, oopppsss sorry i farted again. and natural gas can be collected in so many different ways. and when we run out of gas we wont care because we will not have an atmospere left that is able to support life.
2006-07-08 23:58:21 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
People are going hungry with or without cars. People are killing each other in Iraq for oil. No one is going to be stupid enough to go hungry just because they want to take their car out for a spin.
2006-07-09 21:22:59 · answer #7 · answered by Verves2 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No,. is not like you can walk to a Publix, or Winn-Dixie and buy all the corn in there and stick them in the gas tank.
2006-07-08 23:54:44 · answer #8 · answered by lelekid4ever 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
For now, no. But eventually, yes.
2006-07-09 00:25:16 · answer #9 · answered by Eric 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋