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| Science & Technology |
| Growing demand for biofuels 'could lead to food shortages' |
| 2007-04-19 |
| Britain could face food shortages within 25 years as a result of growing demand for biofuels and a rising world population, a leading adviser to industry and the Government said yesterday. Competition for land between fuel and food crops, expanding populations in developing countries, and climate change were all going to put pressure on world food supplies, said Prof Bill McKelvey, chief executive of the Scottish Agriculture College in Edinburgh. He said: "We are becoming less self-sufficient in food. I don't believe that if we look 50 years ahead we will be in a food-secure situation. It's possible in the next 25 to 50 years that there will be food shortages in the UK." Ah, the Law of Unintended Consequences... |
| Posted by:Dave D. |
| #10 Sugar Beets produce more sugar (What converts into alcohol) than sugar cane does, most domestic sugar comes from beets, not cane. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2007-04-19 20:10 |
| #9 biomass sounds good. If not that, then sugarcane-based ethonal. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2007-04-19 17:29 |
| #8 I read this week that a lot of the biotech companies are now redirecting their energies to the development of enzymes that will convert biomass into fuel, thus saving the edible components of the plant for food. It would not surprise me if they can pull this off. The part of the whole GW debate that is really idiotic is the status quo mentality with respect to technology development. I am an optomist on this score. I think there will be breakthroughs that will address the energy issue in the next 50 years. And if this breakthrough bankrupts those turds in the ME, then that is a huuuuuuuge bonus. |
| Posted by: remoteman 2007-04-19 16:41 |
| #7 I said this from the get-go - and it won't take 25 years, either. As Ice said, there's already a shortage of corn in some places (due, not doubt, to the corn growers getting better prices from biofuels companys than from food companies). So, the way the GW idiots are going to "save" Earth's climate (which they actually have NO control over) is to (1) stop the climate from getting any warmer and in fact try to make it cooler, thereby shortening the growing season in marginal areas and reducing the amount of food that CAN be grown (never mind objecting to the modern growing methods that allow more food to be produced from less land than, say, 50 years ago), and (2) using a lot of the food that IS grown for vehicle fuel rather than for food itself. Not that that matters to the environazis; just about everything they espouse makes them feel good about themselves while damaging, further impoverising, or downright killing non-white foreigners. And somehow, Phuque the lot of them. Pfui. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2007-04-19 14:02 |
| #6 If we could convert bullsh** to electricity, journalists could provide most of our energy by the end of the century. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2007-04-19 09:13 |
| #5 The GW hysteria may well trigger a truly global food crisis. Food stocks have been declining for a number of years and now demand for biofuels is eating into them. We are only one bad harvest away from real shortages. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2007-04-19 05:50 |
| #4 Sorry, late night humor. British and food should not be used in the same article. Oddly enough Mexico has seen a price increase of tacos and corn tortillas. |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2007-04-19 02:38 |
| #3 ed, brilliant! |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-04-19 01:43 |
| #2 FoodPEC. I look forward to the day when we sell to our Arab friends a $3 bushel of corn for $65. |
| Posted by: ed 2007-04-19 01:40 |
| #1 Gloom, doom... Yes, I agree, with the damage that our edukayshun is doing to our kids, the normal human resourcefullness and ability to overcome adversity may be in a short supply in 2 decades. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-04-19 00:18 |