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Guns vs. butter is now food vs. fuel?
Back when I was studying economics in the mid 70's, the most common universal economic trade-off was guns vs. butter, intended to suggest that an emphasis on military spending precluded consumer goods and the larger thought that you can't have everything. Many advances in production efficiencies and the growth of the economy in general (not to mention the scarcity of wars on the scale of WWII) have effectively eliminated many of the economic trade-offs we must make. However, a new one has emerged which could be with us for a while: food vs. fuel.
Driving to work in the morning I typically listen to NPR, and yesterday I heard an interesting statistic: the amount of grain used to produce 25 gallons of ethanol (which they characterized as one tankful for a typical SUV) can feed a human being for a year. I haven't researched this independently beyond the figure that I've seen that one bushel of corn produces about 2.75 gallons of ethanol. So, let's say for the sake of argument that tankful of ethanol took 10 bushels of corn. I must confess that I don't know enough about agriculture to know how much a bushel really is, beyond what we used to call a "bushel basket." Maybe I could survive for a year on 10 of those, but I doubt it. (If anybody has better information on that, let me know.)
Others suggest that there is actually plenty of food to go around, but it seems that rising prices have become a truly global concern, particularly in poor countries. Opinions differ if this is actually related to cereal grains being diverted to biofuels or not. Keeping ethanol viable as a fuel without disrupting food supplies and prices will certainly depend on developing processes for cellulose and others that do not demand food as a feedstock.
On the other hand, I have seen other statistics that suggest solar panels placed on the same land used to grow corn for ethanol can generate more than 100 times as much energy, even with the relative inefficiency of current photovoltaics. Something to think about.
Guns vs. butter is now food vs. fuel?
April 15, 2008
Back when I was studying economics in the mid 70's, the most common universal economic trade-off was guns vs. butter, intended to suggest that an emphasis on military spending precluded consumer goods and the larger thought that you can't have everything. Many advances in production efficiencies and the growth of the economy in general (not to mention the scarcity of wars on the scale of WWII) have effectively eliminated many of the economic trade-offs we must make. However, a new one has emerged which could be with us for a while: food vs. fuel.Driving to work in the morning I typically listen to NPR, and yesterday I heard an interesting statistic: the amount of grain used to produce 25 gallons of ethanol (which they characterized as one tankful for a typical SUV) can feed a human being for a year. I haven't researched this independently beyond the figure that I've seen that one bushel of corn produces about 2.75 gallons of ethanol. So, let's say for the sake of argument that tankful of ethanol took 10 bushels of corn. I must confess that I don't know enough about agriculture to know how much a bushel really is, beyond what we used to call a "bushel basket." Maybe I could survive for a year on 10 of those, but I doubt it. (If anybody has better information on that, let me know.)
Others suggest that there is actually plenty of food to go around, but it seems that rising prices have become a truly global concern, particularly in poor countries. Opinions differ if this is actually related to cereal grains being diverted to biofuels or not. Keeping ethanol viable as a fuel without disrupting food supplies and prices will certainly depend on developing processes for cellulose and others that do not demand food as a feedstock.
On the other hand, I have seen other statistics that suggest solar panels placed on the same land used to grow corn for ethanol can generate more than 100 times as much energy, even with the relative inefficiency of current photovoltaics. Something to think about.
Posted by Peter Welander on April 15, 2008 | Comments (1)
Industries: Process Control
April 16, 2008
In response to: Guns vs. butter is now food vs. fuel?
Anonymous commented:
In response to: Guns vs. butter is now food vs. fuel?
Anonymous commented:
A U.S. bushel of corn contains 70 pounds of corn on the ears, or 56 pounds of corn kernels. The amount of a "bushel" of other grains, fruits and vegetables can be found here: www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/scales/bushels.html
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