Here’s an interview with the makers of the documentary King Corn, which is partly about how maize “covers the food landscape,” as well as the actual landscape, in the US.
More methane please, we’re Vermonters
The state of Vermont in the US would likely greet Luigi’s news about less flatulent fodder with horror, if there were any Acacia or Sesbania there. Vermont has one of the fastest-growing alternative energy programmes in the US, all based on the prodigious output of its vast dairy herd. Better yet, methane is a much more effective greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. So burning methane is win-win: less methane, and less carbon dioxide than non-renewable power-station fuels. via Grist.
Biofuels are weeds are biofuels
Traits deemed ideal in a bio-energy crop are also commonly found among invasive species
From a fascinating post at Invasive Notes, listing the species tagged as prospective biofuels, many of which are indeed already classified as invasive weeds. This is a monumental labour, and a great resource for which I am sure researchers will be grateful.
Chinese torture water report
Green energy, blue impacts, a report from the International Water Management Institute yesterday, says that plans to rapidly increase biofuel production in China and India threaten their ability to meet future food and feed needs. China plans to increase biofuel production fourfold, to 9% of its projected demand for petrol, by 2020. India aims to double the requirement for ethanol in petrol to 10% in the next year. Mainstream press bulletins cover that side of the report. But Scidev.net reveals that Chinese officials have countered and say that the IWMI report’s concerns have already been met, for example by a directive in May 2007 that bans the use of corn and by a shift to non-staple crops.
Just one little thing. Would someone at SciDev.net (or elsewhere) explain exactly what they mean when they describe batata as “a type of sweet potato”. And maybe the same person (or someone else) can explain how shifting the burden to non-staple crops, which the Chinese say they are doing, eases food shortages. Those crops use less water than corn, it is true, but they are edible too. Doesn’t that make them more valuable as food and feed?
Rising food prices threaten on-farm biodiversity
Back in the 1990s the European Union, concerned about over-production of poor-quality cereals, introduced set-aside. Farmers were required to not grow food on a percentage of their land, currently 8%, and were paid to do so. The result was an increase in biodiversity; wildflowers, insects, birds, that sort of thing. Now, with rising food prices, there’s a proposal to reduce the area of set-aside to 0%, and conservationists are unhappy.
This is an old argument. Grow more food more intensively and you spare some “wild” habitat. I suppose the question is, how long will high food prices last? Until rain returns to Australia? Or until the world wakes up from its ethanol binge?