I tell you: Scrap Biofuel away!!

Biofuel, Biodiesel, ethanol and the likes. They are pitted as the saviours for our car engines as we seek remedies to do away with fossil fuels. But, alas, not all that glitters is gold.

Research back in August quoted that: increasing production of biofuels to combat climate change will release between two and nine times more carbon gases over the next 30 years than fossil fuels Source.

One may argue that the debate is wide open, and I fully agree to that. However, what is happening is that biofuels in the form of crop derivations is financially more advantageous for certain sectors of the economy. The most is the farmer. Crops for biofuel are getting a better prices than crops for food.

This was even stated by Pippo Psaila, head of the EORC, a Maltese company that produces biofuel. Although they started and still use used cooking oil as the source of biofuel, the EORC plans to expand. And what does it offer? The end of the article in The Times, Business edition of the 6th of December says it all:

"Farmers could grow jatropha instead of fodder.... In the end, they would be growing something that gives them a much higher income for much less work".

First of all, one must be very careful when introducing new crops. It must be made sure that the plant is not invasive. We do not want jatropha to be another haxixa ingliza do we?

Secondly, the farmer will surely gain, or so he hopes, a higher yield and more valuable crop. But what about the previous user of the fodder?

We all know that food prices have risen tremendously in a few months. It is believed that food stockpiles are very low, at levels last seen in the early eighties. Exchanging food crops with fuel crops will not made the situation better.

I shall end with some text from an article I read on the reasons why food prices have risen so much:

1 Rising consumption: The appetite of fast-growing nations, such as China, is rising as economic booms cause a surge in demand for meat and dairy products

2 Competition from biofuels: The cars of the rich are now rivalling the bellies of the poor for corn, cane and edible oils

3 Climate change: Global warming is putting pressure on water needed to irrigate crops

So what do you think? Would you still go for biofuel?