I don't mean to rip into you for this but . . .
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jamestwilliams
It's the E85 part I really have a problem with, it causes starvation in third world countries by making food crops a fuel source. The price of basics grains has already tripled thanks in no small part to allowing the oil companies to have control of food crops or I should say the oil traders. This is a far bigger problem than worrying about whether or not we are going to get to keep our muscle cars. At the same time I strongly believe in a consumer driven market, if people want big V8 powered pony/muscle/sports cars they should be allowed to have them they shouldn't be the exclusive domain of the rich which is what Cafe legislation is pushing for.
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Grains are not used to make E85. Neither are potatoes, apples, tomatoes, or just about any other food crop that went up over the last year. Causing starvation? How about drought in Africa? Food prices have gone up because of all the pesticides and fertilizer that we need to generate such massive crop yields. Guess what those pesticides are made from? Oil. In fact, it takes roughly the equivalent of a gallon of gasoline to get the same energy from corn based ethanol. Also, in the US farmers were paid to
not grow corn in order to keep the price from getting too low. Mexico was still flooded with cheap American corn to the point that Mexican farmers couldn't compete and ended up protesting.
In North America, farming is a business not a way of life. Agricorps sell to distributors who sell it to consumers. They are not simply going to be nice and give food to starving people: they are going to sell it to who ever has the money to buy it. If we want to end world hunger we need to get the starving to feed themselves. We don't grow enough to feed them anyway. "Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish, feed him for life".
What needs to be done is we need to stop sucking the money out of those countries and reduce the amount of food we buy from them. Let them eat the food that they grow, and we will eat the food that we grow. And we also need to stop selling them crops designed for our mega farms. They don't work in Africa or other places. Instead of genetically engineering terminator seeds, engineer drought resistant crops, or ones that can grow with brackish water.