Quite some time back someone on this list -- Jed, maybe, or maybe it was
actually several people -- opined that "alternative" biofuels which
require arable land to grow could plausibly be viewed as, at least,
fundamentally stupid, or at worst as a crime against humanity.
Recently I've noticed an interesting trend: In the context of articles
on inflation and world food supplies, alternative fuels are now coming
up time and again as one of the main causes of rising food prices. Just
as one trivial example, here's an excerpt from today's Wall Street
Journal, which happened to have a story on rising inflation:
But the fact that inflation is rising almost everywhere suggests some
of its causes are global. As crops are sold for alternative-energy
production, food prices have soared: The price of rice, the staple
for billions of Asians, is up 147% over the past year.
Obviously there's more than just alternative fuel production at work in
Asia -- to name one thing, China is also turning over more land (and
more grain) to beef production as they shift to a more "Western" diet --
but none the less it's interesting that yet again, in an article which
had nothing to do with energy production, this issue came up; the impact
of biofuels on food prices is now treated as a "given" by the mainstream
press.
It seems that we are, indeed, moving to a mode where we "burn our food"
in our cars.
(Original link to the full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120778643316903397.html?mod=hps_us_pageone
but it may be subscribers-only.)
