OPEC is warning that investment in biofuels could send the price of petroleum through the roof. Obviously, they are just trying to protect their position in the fuel market by protecting petroleum as king. Still, this is yet another reason why using our food as fuel is an amazingly stupid idea.
The beauty of petroleum is that it is a relatively efficient fuel, that is efficient to harvest (that is, it takes very little fuel consumption to get more fuel), and its one major use is fuel (there are other uses, but mostly it is used for fuel).
The problem with biofuels right now is that they are not as efficient as petroleum based fuels (as anyone who lives in a area where they put ethanol in the fuel already knows all too well), and they are very inefficient to harvest (that is, according to many reports I have seen, it takes close a gallon of fuel to grow and process enough corn (or other source) to make a gallon of fuel).
However, the real kick in the pants with biofuels is that we are already using food as food. Even if you switch to a non-food crop, you end up taking land out of food production and into fuel production. Thus, unlike petroleum, we already have a major primary use for our crops. This does nothing but drive up the cost of food, putting tremendous pressure on everyone, especially poor people. And if OPEC has any say, which they do, it will also drive up the cost of petroleum. Nice double whammy there...
Now, if we could find a way to use our garbage for food, I would be all for that. After all, that would be perfect. There is a lot of it, and all we do with it right now is bury it in the ground.
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