New Donklephant contributor Tom Strong injects some reality into the biofuel argument.
While the tiny ethanol and biodiesel industries have seen a mini-boom last year, the market took a sharp hit this past spring. Future growth may speed up again, but there’s a very real limit to how much biodiesel and ethanol we can produce without cutting into our food supply. What’s more, both biodiesel and ethanol are currently subsidized by the federal government – and that’s on top of the subsidies paid for corn and soy, our top two commodity crops.
Hey, who needs corn on the cob and tofu. I can go without. How about you?
Seriously though, I was thinking about this today after watching Daryl Hannah’s (yes that one) new internet series Love Life. True, diesel engines were made to run on fuel that could be grown, but what if a massive drought comes?
Wouldn’t we be screwed?