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Biofuels Notes
Biofuels Notes
Biofuels Notes
add to
the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. Among other things, this has meant a search for alternatives to fossil fuels,
which modern civilization uses to generate electricity, heat homes, and power transportation. Finding alternatives for
electricity generation (which relies much more on coal than on oil or natural gas) or home heating (which relies more on
oil and natural gas) is easier than nding alternatives for transportation (which relies on oil, re ned into gasoline and
diesel oil). In addition, the transportation infrastructure, consisting of re neries, pipelines, tank trucks, gas stations,
and an immense number of cars and trucks that will be on the road for many years, is well designed for handling liquid
fuels. It is not surprising that industry and government would like to nd nonfossil liquid fuels for cars and trucks (as
well as ships and airplanes). In the YES selection, Keith Kline et al. argue that the impact of biofuels production on
food prices is much less than alarmists claim. If biofuels development focused on converting bio wastes and fast-
growing trees and grasses (into fuels, the overall impact would be even better, with a host of bene ts in reduced fossil
fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions, increased employment, enhanced wildlife habitat, improved soil and water
quality, and more stable land use. In the NO selection, Madison Ellas argues that although biofuels may indeed
contribute to the need for renewable energy, their bene ts fail to exceed the costs they impose on food security and
Looking at the bene ts of biofuel production as it relates to food security and energy demands,
it is clear that, there is potential for biofuel production to positively a ect food security. The
bene ts of fossil fuel depletion, the rise in the need for renewable energy, and the continual
development of improved biofuels all point to this potential. In contrast, the challenges that
biofuels cause for global food security have been analyzed in depth and demonstrate that a
signi cant amount of reinvention is necessary for biofuel production to be truly bene cial.
Skeptics draw on land redistribution, crop redirection, resource reallocation, food price
increases, impacts of policies, and the ill e ects of land grabbing to demonstrate how far
biofuels have to go
Murphy and Wise explain that, with an increasing demand for corn to be used in biofuels,
corn that would otherwise be destined for the dinner table is being repurposed as fuel. This
redirection of a consumable good is causing decreases in the food supply and, because of
record low food reserves, prices have risen dramatically on a global scale. This rise in global
food prices results in food insecurity because it forces poor households, which already
food consumption, which can result in malnutrition or death. This e ectively generates an
inability for many households to access food because fragile household incomes cannot