O.R.C.

While the progressives of the world are jumping on the corn-oil fueled bandwagon, many of the horrendous pitfalls of biofuel manufacture are coming to light. A recent study published by the University of Minnesota reports that “..converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas, or grasslands to produce food-based biofuels in Brazil, Southeast Asia, and the United States creates a ‘biofuel carbon debt’ by releasing 17 to 420 times more CO2 than the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions these biofuels provide by displacing fossil fuels.”

What’s more, the UN reports that it takes 232kg of corn to fill a 50-litre car tank with ethanol, enough to feed a child for a year. In today’s unfortunately globalized economy, many natural-resource rich countries (identified as “3rd world”) are set up to import the majority of their food, and as the food-producing countries shift their agriculture to produce oil instead of food, riots are erupting across the globe. 60 million people face eviction to make room for biofuel farming across the globe.

Once more, we are discovering that there are hidden costs in alternative fuel sources, that the industrial infrastructure that has been set up cannot be maintained in a sustainable manner.