Please respond the this statement: Only in America would we burn food in our cars!?

Question

I mean if we burn biodiesel in our cars it is soybeans, if we burn ethanol in our cars it is corn. How can we justify this when there are people starving in the world?

Answer 1

Basically its a big ploy to get big agri-busineses and corn states rich.

Corn based ethanol is actually worse for the environment than just buring oil. The energy it takes to convert the corn into sugar and then into alcohol and then into ethanol, and then in the trucks to ship it to filling stations, takes much more energy than its worth. At the end of the day, yes it burns cleaner in your car, but the pollution and toxic fetilizers it takes to get to your gas tank account for more pollution than it saves.

Now sugar cane based ethanol on the other hand is very efficient to produce, so therefor it is good for the environment. Also, a person making biodiesel from waste frying oil is definently, absolutely, with out a doubt the best bio fuel alternative out there, but the supplies are limited and it is not suited for the large scale.

Now all of that doesnt even touch on the subject of burning our food to fuel our cars, which is a dumb idea.

The key is solar power at home with an electric plugin vehicle. Zero emission and you generate your own fuel.

Answer 2

Feeding people old cooking oil is a good idea?. I agree we shouldn't be using corn to make ethanol, switchgrass is a much better source of ethanol, I forget what the exact numbers are but
we get much more out of a bushel of switchgrass as opposed to corn, but then all those corn growers in Iowa ( the place where all the politicians go!! ), wouldn't be happy.

Answer 3

The real problem with ethanol is that you have to put more energy into making it than you get out of it. Even things like switchgrass require more energy to make than they yield. It doesn't really rob our food supply much; the corn used is not human-food grade corn, but it is the same kind used for livestock feed. It doesn't mean less food available, however, it just means that prices will go up due to increased demand.

Answer 4

I can justify it in a few ways.

#1 - Those people aren't the problem of the US.

#2 - They shouldn't have let their population grow to a point where it can't be sustained without outside help. Once those people start getting help, they'll continue to need it because the people won't starve but they'll still have the problem of too many people for the local resources. So then we'll not only be supporting ourselves, but a bunch of third world countries, too.

#3 - It's worth letting some people die for the good of the rest of the planet.

Answer 5

It requires more energy to produce ethanol than we get out of it when it is burned.
It is a typical Government response that screws up what is truly needed in response to popular but typically misguided public demands.
There isn't enough farm land in the U.S.A. to produce enough fuel to replace the petroleum we consume at today's rates of usage.
It is like covering a decaying structure with a coat of paint.
It CAN'T solve the problem.
Then there is the demand of billions in India and China who want fuel for the cars they are buying.

Answer 6

I would change the statement to say, "Only in America CAN we burn food in our cars," but both statements are inaccurate. Ethanol is being used in other countries, too. Smart people can see that ethanol is just a distraction - not an improvement over petrolem, but hey; Only in America are the consumers this dumb.

Answer 7

You can ACTUALLY eat other things besides soybeans and corn. I actually ate some carrots the other day and bread. Unbelievable!

What makes no sense is using foreign oil, which is filthy, non-renewable and adds to the U.S. trade deficit, costing us jobs. Ethanol is clean, renewable and made in America. Gasoline is none of those things.

And ethanol yields 6 units of energy for every 1 unit used to make it. See my link below.

Answer 8

You mean only on earth, yes? Name one country with multiple millions of people that doesn't have ethanol for fuel plants. There aren't any.

Besides all of that food you talk about will never make it to the poor anyway due to free market economics.

Answer 9

Ethanol is nothing more than a political distraction from the real issues of environmentalism and conservation of resources.

Bio diesel is often made out of waste oil and can be produced in small local bio diesel labs. We have one here in Kalamazoo that provides fuel for our city buses using o fryer oil from local restaurants.

neither are a final solution to the energy issues we face, but could provide a necessary transition period from fossil fuel to truly renewable energy.

Answer 10

and once all the oil on the earth is gone what DO you expect your parents or yourselves to run in your BIG OLD SUV'S??? Spinach????? Somewhere, someone has GOT to discover an economical way for the transportation age to continue without depleting all of the worlds oil resources.... people spend more time thinking it will never happen or "NOT IN MY LIFETIME".... but don't we have an obligation to future generations to TRY to find something that works as well as oil? So they experiment with corn and soybeans and whatever else they come up with next.... if there were no experimentation, NOTHING new would be discovered.... We'd still be using old typewriters, playing records on a RECORD PLAYER and no one would be flying ANYWHERE .... and as far as using plants and/or animals---without their use, we won't find a possible cure for cancer, we would NEVER have all the drugs today that fights Aids and CURES certain forms of cancer... So, experimentation is an ESSENTIAL part of life if we want life to continue on this earth.... and, experimenting with food sources is necessary ....we are NOT the only country in the world growing corn and/or soybeans for experimental purposes........ I have a SERIOUS illness right now that if I had gotten it 15 or even 5 YEARS ago, I probably would be dead by now---but drugs----drugs that were used on lab animals, plants that were used to make the drugs--were created and now I COULD live as long as 15 more YEARS.... I'm not saying that someone else's life should be taken to save MINE... I'm just saying we have to find SOMETHING to replace OIL and SOON.