I don't normally weigh in such issues, but I will here. Background: I'm a Chemical Engineer and I work for a company that evaluates and writes commercialization assessments for new technology that is developed by small businesses via grant funding from the Federal government. These SBIR grants (small business innovative research) are varied, intersting, useful, and sometimes very very early stage technologies. When I look at biofuels in the short term, I agree. I see a nonsustainable venture that will increase feed costs, justify even further use of pesticides and non-organic fertilizer, and just seems to make no sense.
But then I look longterm. I think about the projects I've worked on that try to develop something, and maybe partially succeed, and then some unrelated benefit occurs (some other industry benefits from the innovation, the technology's first cut is ineffective but the second or third or tenth iteration works great). I would like to believe, based on the dozens and dozens of technologies that I have personally worked on, that this is only the beginning of a long process to evaluate how to develop a sustainable source of energy. short term, I don't see that, but I'm an optimist and truly believe that the economics will drive bio technology into something that can be sustainable, though it may not be the "whole" energy pie, only a slice, like solar, wind, etc. It would be great if corn solved the world's energy problems, but that's not going to happen (mainly because it's not the fuels that cause the problems, it's the users of the fuel..). Personally, what I think is important about this whole biofuel venture is not the early work, but making sure that R&D continues to improve the process, find better fuel sources, and then an admission that this is no the "be all end all" fix so let's not neuter the landscape and plant corn (or whatever). I'd be advocating for more research money to make sure we're not stuck with the first version of this attempt. Again, I don't mean to preach, but just to give you a different perspective. Lisa Dufresne Athens, VT ----- Original Message ----- From: "Betsy Johnson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "ACGA listserv" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 11:28 AM Subject: [Community_garden] Biofuels Myths-Please forward to friends > > > _____ > > > <http://www.thedatabank.com/smFriend.asp?enid=YWFjd2M9MzExNDQxOTkwMDc4NzI3MT > c3NzgmZW1haWw9Y29tZm9vZEBlbGlzdC50dWZ0cy5lZHU=> Forward this newsletter to > a > friend > > > > > <http://www.foodfirst.org/images/header.jpg> > > > > > > > > > > > > Biofuels are not clean and green. Biofuels will result in deforestation. > Biofuels will not bring rural development. Biofuels will cause hunger. > > > > Today's International Herald Tribune, with more than one million political > and influential subscribers worldwide, published an opinion piece by Food > First's executive director, Eric Holt-Gimenez. Moving full speed ahead > with > biofuels could result in environmental disaster and increased human > suffering. > > Please forward this link to the editorial to your friends. > > http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/10/opinion/edholt.php > > or at the Food first web site > > http://www.foodfirst.org/inthenews > > > > <http://www.thedatabank.com/hfriend.asp?aacwc=31144199007872717778> > Forward > to a friend > > Food First's privacy policy http://www.foodfirst.org/privacy > > > You have received this email from Food First on behalf of a colleague or > friend who thought you'd be interested in this message. We will not > directly > send additional emails to your account unless you sign up at our site. > > > > <http://www.thedatabank.com> thedatabank, inc. > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: > http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20070711/44d41f5a/attachment.html > _______________________________________________ > The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of > ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and > to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org > > To post an e-mail to the list: [email protected] > > To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: > http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org > _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
