Is using food as a fuel source a good idea?
As many of you know, not all biofuels are made the same; cutting down the rainforest to grow biofuel crops is a terrible idea. Growing crops locally has been proven thru many studies to create lowered emissions and a net gain of energy over the life cycle of the fuel. Click here for SeQuential’s expanded Food vs Fuel response. Click here for the US Department of Energy’s response. Click here for a presentation from the Oregon Department of Agriculture on Food vs Fuel. [7mb pdf] Life cycle assessments follow a product from “cradle to grave” and all the inputs in between; for biofuels, this would be taking everything from planting, to fertilizing, harvesting, transport, conversion, distribution and combustion, into consideration. 100% soybean-based biodiesel (grown in the US) has a lifecycle impact of lowering carbon dioxide emissions by about 78% as compared to petroleum diesel. Source: http://www.nrel.gov/docs/legosti/fy98/24089.pdf 85% corn-based bioethanol (grown in the US) has a lif
