Agrofuel and food: What do you think?

[orangebleue]

Hello.
What do you think about the use of ethanol knowing that it is made with food that could have helped billions of children to eat?

(edited by ex-oceanic 12 / 03 / 09 to 20: 35: Title changed.)

[Christophe]

Really?

Are you sure that wheat or corn that was used to make ethanol would have ended up in the stomachs of hungry children?

I'm pretty sure not! Have there been more hunger and starvation deaths since agrofuels? I do not think so!

On the other hand the "world" quotation (the speculation which ensues from it) of food products is an infamy ...

[Did67]

Really?

Are you sure that wheat or corn that was used to make ethanol would have ended up in the stomachs of hungry children?

I'm pretty sure not! Have there been more hunger and starvation deaths since agrofuels? I do not think so!
...

Indeed, food is a market. And poor countries are insolvent. This is how we saw monstrous food stocks 10 / 15 years ago, in rich countries, with always the same famine in poor countries ...

And food aid, when we decided to get rid of stocks that had become unsaleable, did horrific damage in these poor countries because it destroyed local markets. Result: always poor and food addiction more. And corruption bonus!

So good feelings do not make a saving. And we must beware of simplistic reasoning even if they are touching!

On the other hand, at home, it is true that agrofuels contributed (slightly) to a tension on certain food products: cereals, oils ... and derivatives .... The bulk of the movement was however the speculation. But as soon as a food market stretches, 2 or 3% of deficit can make prices flare up and multiply by two or three or ten. This has always been the case, and that is why we set up very complex systems of food market regulation (the famous Brussels negotiations, with ministers locked up for several days and nights ...). And under Anglo-Saxon influence, they were dismantled.

Last point: ordinary people do not realize it, but we are, in my opinion, coming out of years of legendary surpluses and going towards more tense years. Just talking about solvent markets (so rich countries). So just as our children will pay more for their energy, they will, in my opinion, also pay more for their food. And the link is obvious: a significant part of the energy contained in plant products is of "petroleum" origin (through fertilizers, pesticides and fuels for agricultural machinery) and no longer of "photosynthesis" origin. !

[I Citro]

: arrow: Could the title of the subject be corrected?

[phil53]

We must not forget the deforestation caused in part by agricarburants!