Oil or Starvation, Soon We Will Need to Choose
Food crops are being turned into more lucrative bio fuels while people starve.
The price of oil continues to rise despite the occasional dip and production levels stay the same as they have during the past four years. There are moves afoot to get more oil out the on the market but all we have seen so far is a mere ‘drop in the ocean’ so to speak.
Basic economics demonstrates that when supply is low, and demand is high, prices rise. If more oil is released into the system the price will fall. Wealthy oil producing countries don’t want this to happen. Oil is. Arguably, the most precious commodity on earth.
China has a serious shortfall and has been plugging the gap with biofuels made from grain, oil seed and sugar. This trend which is growing fast in Asia, the mid-east and South America is taking away food supplies. The world’s population is growing at the rate of around 70 million per year
The situation in China is critical and the government very afraid of what a drop in food supplies could do. There are already serious physical shortages and the people fear a repetition of the 1960’s food crisis that hit the country.
A crisis like the one the world is currently facing has never been seen before. Food production has become energy production as alternatives to oil are sought and developed. Corn is not being used for bread as it makes an excellent fuel for cars and power plants if it’s converted to ethanol.
Worldwide the amount of land used to grow biofuels has increased more than seven fold during the past six years and this kind of fuel now provides 4% of our global energy requirements.
The crops involved are sugar beet, corn , wheat, soya, and rapeseed. These are staple foodstuffs throughout the world. Increasing tendencies for these to be used as biofuels, is driven by government subsidies in US and Europe. So, demand for these crops as a fuel alternative rises, prices rise and the portion that is left for food becomes increasingly expensive.
Take for example the price of a loaf of bread. A standard loaf of white made from wheat flour has increased by more than 25 % in UK during the past year. There are similar rises in US and in less well off countries like Brazil and China.
The world wheat price has been inflated so much in the scramble for fuel that it is becoming increasing difficult for us to feed ourselves.
The time is fast approaching when we may have to make the choice between feeding people and fuelling our factories and cars.
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User Comments
cutedrishti8
On November 11, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Should take some serious steps
Guy Hogan
On November 11, 2009 at 3:26 pm
The US car industry is already re-tooling to produce electric cars for this very reason.
magicdarts
On November 11, 2009 at 3:55 pm
didn’t realise quite how widespread the practice of using staple foods for bio fuel has become – scary but a great article!
Themax
On November 11, 2009 at 4:37 pm
yes we need to think about this topic,Great share
Marie Antoinette
On November 11, 2009 at 4:56 pm
Pretty soon some of us will choose to plant our own food and ride in horses.
Jane Benitez
On November 11, 2009 at 6:07 pm
I think electric cars will provide some relief and we may have to start growing our own food. Great topic and certainly one that we all need to be made aware of – nice read!
Aleena
On November 11, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Good article, this is a seriously issue that needs some attention. If only we could stop being so greedy for money and realise theres people dying out there right? It’s unfortunately hard to actually realise how our worlds working right now though.
Authoress Terry E. Lyle
On November 11, 2009 at 8:23 pm
VERY SERIOUS ISSUE THAT WE NEED TO ADDRESS AND FIND A SOLUTION TO ASAP.
Tim P Stavert
On November 12, 2009 at 11:53 am
Hi Jan
Yes this is a very serious problem and I feel the Governments are too busy worrying about their own egos, than the state of the planet.
The problem is that we are also not controlling the population with more people living longer and with more cures for deadly diseases and birth control in this country is causing more unwanted pregnancies which will cause more poverty.
An environmental specialist stated in the 1970’s that the maximum population in this country should be around 38 million to prevent an environmental catastrophy. We are now approaching 70 million in this country alone. We have lost a lot of our proper farming to growing oil seed as well as industry to imports when we have the technology to make solar power more efficient, we would not need half the oil the Business men and Governments claim. Tragically the truth is that it all comes down to greed and Money.
Great Article with strong views
Best Wishes
Tim
Joe Poniatowski
On November 13, 2009 at 12:19 am
Intriguing and scary dilemma.
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