Comments on: Ethical consumption update

By: Sherry

Sherry — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:25:29 +0000

These folks:
http://www.landinstitute.org/vnews/display.v/SEC/About%20Us
have been shaking things up for a while now out here in wheat/corn/soybean territory.
Wes Jackson is a local celeb and many farmers actually listen to him.

By: David R. Gillespie

David R. Gillespie — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 05:34:48 +0000

I, too, doubt that our public policy will follow. Had an interesting discussion tonight in this regard which led into a bigger discussion of domination systems and competitive vs. cooperative systems.

By: Scott Wells

Scott Wells — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 03:14:00 +0000

Another link, from the BBC today: “UN warns on food price inflation“

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 01:45:54 +0000

Re: ethanol and other biofuels — Biodiesel is a great product when it is made from waste cooking oil (which is what Willie Nelson did for his tour buses, for a while anyway). But when you’re growing a crop just to make the biodiesel, not only does that put some cropland out of use for growing food, in addition some studies show that you only get a little bit more energy output than the energy you put in (to refine the oil from the plant). Note also the recent reports about a worldwide cooking oil shortage, due to vegetable oils getting diverted to use for fuel by wealthy countries.

No easy answer.

By: Derek

Derek — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:52:34 +0000

I also think that ethical consumption will not be more than a sub-culture in most of America. And although it is a sub-culture I am making more choices to participate in, I don’t see most of my neighbors doing the same (or having the freedom or know-how to do the same).

I live in a rather low income neighborhood, in a rusting mid-Western industrial city, where recent news reports indicate that over 30% of our population lives below the poverty line. And although we have very good public bus service (a mercy for the working poor who have no cars), I don’t see public policy encouraging other forms of ethical consumption.

And what I worry about is the fate of my neighbors who have few economic choices, and little time to re-consider their options. How will their own nutrition decline as food prices increase? It is hard to be an informed consumer when you work so hard for poverty wages.

By: Scott Wells

Scott Wells — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 16:38:45 +0000

@Joel. I think corn is a loverly substance to make alcohol out of. For Bourbon whiskey, anyway.

Two problems with your suggestion, but are really a follow-ups to the fact that the energy inputs into fuel ethanol or oilseed biodiesel take up much (or more) of the energy output when burned in engines.

How much energy would be used tanking or pipelining (!) ethanol from Brazil? Which also seems only to replace one foreign dependency with another.
If alternative liquid fuels take such a huge bite, then isn’t the real problem our transportation system. Greater use of electrified light and heavy rail (and more use of common ground carriers) makes more sense to me.

I have a terrible feeling the “invisible hand of the market” is going to beat us all senseless.

By: Joel Monka

Joel Monka — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 15:38:06 +0000

The real insanity is that corn is a lousy thing to make alcohol out of- given the fuel needed for the farm machinery to grow it, plus processing, it actually consumes more oil than it replaces. If we would brew it from sawgrass, or buy it from Brazil, who brews it from sugarcane and sawgrass, it would be a viable alternative… but because Brazil does not vote in our Presidential primaries and Iowa does, we uses corn instead.