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POPSLet Them Eat Rice: Washington's Unedifying Ethanol Food Fight And what about the impact of the Chinese livestock and meat complex, alluded to by Senator Grassley? According to China expert, Darrell Ray, Director of the University of Tennessee's Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, "China has not been importing corn to grow her livestock industry. China continues to export more corn that she imports. With regard to grains, China has been taking care of China as if it were a planet on to its own, completely independent of what is happening elsewhere. . . .To attribute today's international grain prices to China essentially assumes that beginning two years ago the market decided there may be a need for China to become a net importer of some corn in the future, say 2012, and so bid-up the price of corn by double." As this "let them eat rice" soundbite made clear, the debate over the food versus fuel issue is about as undignified as a full out real food fight at a summer camp cafeteria.
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POPSEPA Refuses to Cut Ethanol Requirements "Response to the decision fell along predictable lines: The Environmental Working Group's director of government affairs, Sandra Schubert, called the mandate "misguided" and said it was "forcing farmers to plow up marginal land and wildlife habitat while increasing global warming and dumping toxic fertilizers and pesticides into our precious water sources." "America should be focusing on viable clean energy solutions like conservation, solar and wind," she said. The president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, Jim Greenwood, said the decision sent "a strong message that we must continue moving forward toward sustainable production of advanced biofuels" to cut dependence on important oil and to increase biofuel production from non-food sources. His organization represents biotech companies, among others involved in expanding the use of biofuels.""
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POPSEnvironmentalists Hold On Congress
What's the political response to our energy problems? It's more congressional and White House kowtowing to environmentalists, farmers and multi-billion dollar corporations such as Archer Daniels Midland. Their “solution," rather than to solve our oil supply problem by permitting drilling for the billions upon billions of barrels of oil beneath the surface of our country, is to enact the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 that mandates that oil companies increase the amount of ethanol mixed with gasoline. Anyone with an ounce of brains would have realized that diverting crops from food to fuel use would raise the prices of corn-fed livestock, such as pork, beef, chicken and dairy products, and products made from corn, such as cereals. Ethanol production has led to increases in other grain prices, such as soybean and wheat. Since the U.S. is the world's largest grain producer and exporter, higher grain prices have had a huge impact on food prices worldwide.
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POPSFood Stamp Use Soars In MA & Elsewhere “I think low-income families are faced and will be faced this winter with the difficult choice of eating or heating a home,” said Patricia Baker, senior policy analyst for the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, a nonprofit organization that advocates for the poor. “We’re seeing prices escalating, and anything that a family can access to help them buy basic food for their families is critical.”
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POPSCourt Moves To Charge Sudanese President al-Bashir With Genocide "The solution to problems and the current situation in Darfur is not completely independent from the work of the International Criminal Court." The German chancellor said she and Ban also discussed instability in Zimbabwe and the challenge of supporting Africa as food and fuel prices skyrocket. Merkel said that Germany had pledged €600 million (US$954 million) in emergency aid to African nations struggling to deal with rising prices. "Naturally, Germany is strongly committed to development aid." Ban was in Germany for a two-day visit that will also take him to Bonn, where several U.N. programs have their headquarters.
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POPSEthanol: The Fuel To Nowhere Farm belt support for reducing or eliminating the corn ethanol mandate was higher once respondents were informed that two studies, one from Princeton University and another from the University of Minnesota, found that ethanol contributes more greenhouse gas to the atmosphere than does conventional gasoline. It does so, in part, because it encourages the clearing of so-called carbon sinks, such as rain forests, which absorb carbon dioxide, to produce crops for ethanol production. "We shouldn't sacrifice food for fuel, nor should we sacrifice carbon sinks for fuel," said Ridenour. "Ethanol is costing us as taxpayers, it is costing us as consumers, and it is costing us important environmental resources while providing little-to-no benefit for most of us in return. Ethanol is the fuel to nowhere. Like the infamous 'bridge to nowhere' earmark, ethanol mandates mean we all pay enormous costs so a few can benefit."
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POPSWho Will Pay For The Politicians Promises? Because of onerous regulations, it has been 30-plus years since a new refinery has been built. Similar regulations also explain why the U.S. nuclear energy production is a fraction of what it might be. Congress' solution to our energy supply problems is not to relax supply restrictions, but to enact the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 that mandates that oil companies increase the amount of ethanol mixed with gasoline. Anyone with an ounce of brains would have realized that diverting crops from food to fuel use would raise the prices of a host of corn-related foods, such as corn-fed meat and dairy products. Wheat and soybeans prices have also risen as a result of fewer acres being planted in favor of corn. Congress' proposed "solutions" to the energy and food mess it has created include a windfall profits tax on oil companies, food stamps, etc. These measures will not solve the problem, but will create new problems.
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POPSHow Government Regulation effects oil prices at the pump
As is usually the case with government intervention into private enterprise the unexpected results are usually far worse than the original problem congress set out to solve. Doesn't anybody study history anymore? It was not that long ago that the same ideas were floating around congress during the Carter years. Anyone remember the odd even gas days and the long lines at the pumps because of the government forced oil shortages of the 70's Among other mistakes from that period, the government increased the taxes levied on domestic oil producers, as if that would somehow help. The result was “reduced domestic oil production from between 3 and 6 percent, and increased oil imports from between 8 and 16 percent.” The government also instituted price controls, which only served to create the notorious gas shortages of that era. Yes, price controls meant consumers could get cheaper gas — but only after waiting in long gas lines and only if stations didn’t run out first.
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POPSEasing the Ethanol Mandate Smart move on McCain's part. He gets to look like he's doing something to resolve the food crisis. Will EPA waive the increased ethanol production? Not a chance.
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POPSWell, duh What ticks me off about food prices is that we were warned this would happen if we started producing food for fuel. Everyone had to buy into the global warming BS.
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POPSCongress Considers Cellulose Ethanol In the Cato-at-Liberty blog post "Wishful Thinking on Cellulosic Ethanol," Indur Goklany, author of the Cato book The Improving State of the World, writes: "If cellulosic ethanol proves to be as profitable as its backers hope, farmers will divert even more land and water to producing the cellulose instead of food. All this means we'll be more or less back to where we were. Food will once again be competing with fuel. And land and water will be diverted from the rest of nature to meet the human demand for fuel.
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POPSLow Spending Is Taking Toll on Economy "Growth" is now clearly a meaningless concept. On the necessities side -- food, fuel etc. -- inflation is counted as "growth". (No more food or fuel is being produced or used.) This is balanced against deflation and recession in the discretionary economy, and is interpreted as positive growth. These are two different phenomena and cannot be added together in a meaningful way. Yet achieving this growth is what economics is supposed to be all about. Just another reason why the so-called science of economics is literally nonsense and innumerate to boot.
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POPSBIOFUELS – A MAN MADE DISASTER BIOFUEL DISASTER_THANK CONGRESS AND GREENIES! Contrary to popular belief, the production of biofuels is extremely unfriendly to the environment. The increased use of fertilizer needed in the growing corn crop has resulted in additional soil and water pollution. The National Academy of Sciences recently reported that the 15% food to fuel mandate will increase the size of the Gulf of Mexico dead zone by 10 to 19% as a result of water pollution caused by fertilizer runoff. The production of ethanol requires copious amounts of water, thereby draining local water tables. Congress never learns. Manipulating the market with subsidies and taxation can have disastrous, deadly results. If ethanol is such a great product, then it will thrive in the free market. How many people will have to starve before Congress and the do-gooder environmentalist lobby admit that our biofuel policy is a complete disaster and a potential threat to our economy and global stability.
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POPSUndoing America's Ethanol Mistake Expanding biofuels while refusing to take other measures, such as lifting the ban on oil and natural gas production in Alaska and the Outer Continental Shelf, is counterproductive. We should be tapping into a broad portfolio of energy options, including clean coal, nuclear power and wave energy. By taking these measures, we can enable biofuels to be part of the energy solution, instead of contributing to the energy problem. Restraining the dangerous effects of artificially inflated demand for ethanol should be an issue that unites both conservatives and progressives. As a recent Time cover story pointed out, biofuel mandates increase greenhouse gasses and create incentives for global deforestation. In the Amazon basin, huge swaths of forest are being cleared to meet the growing hunger for biofuels. In addition, relief organizations are facing gaping shortfalls as the cost of food outpaces their ability to provide aid for the 800 million people who lack food security.
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POPSState Economic Conditions worsen budget deficits affecting my state big time. Personally felt so far: Funding for advanced (AP, IB) public school courses is being slashed suggesting Florida no longer wants to help fund opportunities for intelligent and motivated children to get a higher level of pre-college education? Let's all just get a crappy public education with our tax dollars. Now that makes perfect sense in a socialist society where we all need to be equally average.
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POPS Obama Eyes Active Role In Oil Markets Grumet said Obama supported a global carbon market and would seek to link a U.S. emissions trading system with the established European one "as soon as possible," though he would make establishing a U.S. program to fight warming and agreeing an international climate change treaty his top priorities. Grumet said Obama would push the biofuel industry to move into second-generation fuels made from waste and advance beyond ethanol produced by corn to avoid the "food or fuel" debate. "For this to really be a significant contribution to increasing our energy security, we're going to have to move beyond corn," he said. Grumet, head of the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center in addition to advising the Obama campaign, said the oil industry had "concentrated incredible market power in a small number of companies" in a way that caused alarm.
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POPS7 food hacks to stay alert without caffeine Are you a zombie without your morning cup of coffee? Instead of using caffeine to stay awake, you can tweak the food you eat to get more energy. By making small changes to your eating patterns you can prevent morning grogginess and mid-afternoon slumps.
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