biofuel

Search Last Month
Search Last 6 Months
Search All Messages
Search Since this date:
54173 2005-11-22 [Biofuel] The bad news about Biodi..	54176 1969-12-31 Re: [Biofuel] The bad news about B..
54191 2005-11-23 Re: [Biofuel] The bad news about B..	54204 1969-12-31 [Biofuel] The bad news about Biodi..
54207 2005-11-24 Re: [Biofuel] The bad news about B..	54208 1969-12-31 Re: [Biofuel] The bad news about B..
54218 2005-11-25 Re: [Biofuel] The bad news about B..	54221 1969-12-31 [Biofuel] The bad news about Biodi..
54231 1969-12-31 Re: [Biofuel] The bad news about B..	54232 2005-11-25 Re: [Biofuel] The bad news about B..
54237 2005-11-25 Re: [Biofuel] The bad news about B..	54244 2005-11-26 Re: [Biofuel] The bad news about B..
54245 2005-11-25 Re: [Biofuel] The bad news about B..	54246 2005-11-25 Re: [Biofuel] The bad news about B..
54254 2005-11-26 Re: [Biofuel] The bad news about B..
Message #54254 of 54591
| Previous Message | Next message | |
Date: 2005-11-26
From: Keith Addison
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] The bad news about Biodiesel
Hi Terry

>Hi Keith,
>
>This is excellent information.  One further point to add to this discussion
>is that agriculture land is not being preserved.  Other uses such as
>industry, retail/wholesale properites, housing and many non agricultural
>users are all using good land that is suitable for growing crops.  The other
>problem is that livestock producers use 90% of the grains grown in North
>America to feed livestock.

See:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_food.html
Biofuels - Food or Fuel?

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_food.html#grainexports
US grain exports

>(Using that land to grow plant foods to feed
>humans is much better use of land; livestock should be grazed on marginal
>land only)

Not so, unless you'd condemn farming to ever-declining soil fertility 
and ever-increasing chemical fertiliser inputs, like so much of it 
now. We've discussed this many times here, and there's no getting 
round it, nor any need to: sustainable farming means mixed farming - 
farming with animals. "... Sow a piece of land with a good pasture 
mixture and then divide it in two with a fence. Graze one half 
heavily and repeatedly with cattle, mow the other half as necessary 
and leave the mowings there in place to decay back into the soil. On 
the grazed half, you've removed the crop (several times) and taken 
away a large yield of milk and beef. On the other half you've removed 
nothing. Plough up both halves and plant a grain crop, or any crop. 
Which half has the bigger and better yield? The grazed half, by far. 
"Ley Farming" explains why "grass is the most important crop" and how 
to manage grass leys. Leys are temporary pastures in a rotation, and 
provide more than enough fertility for the succeeding crops: working 
together, grass and grazing animals turn the land into a huge living 
compost pile."

True sustainable farming. See:
Ley Farming
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library.html#ley

>Also cash crops, such as sugar cane, tobacco and coffee, use a
>lot of land in third world countries were starvation is an issue.
>My other point to add to this issue of solving the land use problem would be
>that we should not follow the petroleum pattern.  Having a few huge big
>players creating a single type of energy for a very large number of
>consumers is not a good solution.  Small energy producers producing a large
>variety of different types of energy for a small number of consumers is a
>better solution.
>My point is that we do not all have to use Bio Fuel.  Here in British
>Columbia, Canada we have a surplus of Hydro Electricity and we also have the
>University of British Columbia working on creating fuel cells.  By using
>clean Hydro electricity plus wind, solar, tides (lunar), geothermal, micro
>hydro and many types of alternative energies, we could have a small number
>of people driving cars using hydrogen fuel cells.  Some urban people might
>use battery powered cars.  Then we could create other solutions such as car
>sharing, better transit and the New Urbanism, smart growth ideas.

"A sustainable energy future requires great reductions in energy use, 
great improvements in energy efficiency, and decentralisation of 
supply to the local-economy level, along with the use of all 
ready-to-use renewable energy technologies in combination as local 
circumstances require." See below -- "A different approach".

>In summary, Global Warming is a bigger issue than using too much land for
>growing crops for Bio Fuel.

Of course it is, but in fact it's the same issue.

Best wishes

Keith


>Terry Dyck
>
>
> >From: Keith Addison 
> >Reply-To: Biofuel.org
> >To: Biofuel.org
> >Subject: [Biofuel]  The bad news about Biodiesel
> >Date: Wed, 23 Nov 2005 17:51:30 +0900
> >
> >Hello Jim
> >
> >See below...
> >
> > >I saw an article in the Trader's Dispatch ( an agricultural paper
> > >printed in Valier Montana) that made me wonder who will win the race.
> > >First some background:
> > >The paper showed a vendor of one of these super duper biodiesel
> > >"automatic generators" showing a crowd that included the State Governor
> > >how fast and simple it is to make Biodiesel.  Some rancher friends said
> > >he gave the Governor a gallon of Biodiesel.  As I understand it this guy
> > >started with some WVO and in about 3 hours presented the Gov with a
> > >gallon of the good stuff. ( according to a friend of mine who goaded me
> > >about taking so long to produce my Bio) Anyway I explained that Good Bio
> > >needs some time to do right or else it is not worth putting in the
> > >tank.  So, now I see these "fleecers" selling these new wonder super
> > >dupers and spreading their form of the gospel about Biodiesel while they
> > >sell these to the uninitiated public for 5-10K a pop.
> > >
> > >Now on the other hand we have the people that care about Biodiesel and
> > >what it takes to produce quality fuel-getting the word of truth out
> > >about the fuel.
> > >
> > >I now go back to my question, who will win the race to get the message
> >out?
> > >
> > >Why does this seem so like the Current U.S. Administration vs the
> > >public? or do am I just to cynical?
> > >
> > >Jim
> >
> >
> >http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html#howmuch
> >How much fuel can we grow? How much land will it take?
> >
> >Two very frequently asked questions.
> >
> >Frequently given answers: "Not enough" and "Too much."
> >
> >Are they the right answers?
> >
> >Seeking to bridge the seemingly unbridgeable gap, there's widespread
> >fascination with high-yielding oil crops, particularly oil-bearing
> >algae, with oil palms running second.
> >
> >It seems obvious that the highest-yielding crops will produce the
> >most energy from the least amount of land.
> >
> >But high yield is not the only factor in farming, and it may not
> >always be the most important factor. It can make more sense for a
> >farmer to grow a lower-yielding crop if it has more useful
> >by-products or requires fewer inputs or less labour or it fixes more
> >soil nitrogen for fertiliser or it fits a crop rotation better. Or if
> >it fits an integrated on-farm biofuels production system better. The
> >how-much-land estimates don't seem to include such things as
> >integrated on-farm biofuels production systems. There are quite a lot
> >of things they don't include.
> >
> >
> >Sustainable farming
> >
> >Biofuels crops have to be grown, and there's a lot of common ground
> >between growing sustainable fuel and growing food sustainably.
> >
> >Large-scale industrialised farms claim to be the most efficient. They
> >concentrate on growing high-yielding monocrops (only one crop) by
> >mass-production methods with a lot of inputs, and they use a lot of
> >fossil-fuel to do it.
> >
> >A sustainable mixed farm can produce all its own fuel, with much or
> >possibly all of it coming from crop by-products and waste products
> >without any dedicated land use, and with very low input levels.
> >
> >That sheds a different light on how much land is needed to grow
> >"enough" biofuels: less land with sustainable farming, which also has
> >much lower fossil-fuels inputs. Sustainable farming is the
> >fastest-growing agricultural sector in many countries, millions of
> >farmers worldwide are turning to sustainable methods.
> >
> >Although sustainable farms require fewer inputs than "conventional"
> >(factory-style) farms, yields and production are not lower. See for
> >instance this message to the Biofuel mailing list from a large-scale
> >organic farmer in the US, one of many:
> >http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel.org/msg12485.html
> >
> >See: Small farms
> >http://journeytoforever.org/farm.html
> >
> >The case for organics -- Scientific studies and reports
> >http://journeytoforever.org/garden_organiccase.html
> >
> >
> >City farming
> >
> >Looking at it from a different angle, according to the UN Food and
> >Agriculture Organisation more than 15% of the world's food supply was
> >produced by city farms in 1993. That was enough food for 900 million
> >people, produced with few inputs other than urban wastes, and with
> >the use of no farming land at all.
> >
> >City farming is sweeping the world, in the industrialised countries
> >as well as 3rd World countries. Many cities would have difficulty
> >handling their wastes without the urban farms recycling them as
> >livestock feed, compost and fertiliser.
> >
> >Such an approach suits localised biofuels production very well, and
> >it integrates well with city farming. For example, only about 10% of
> >the waste vegetable oil (WVO) produced in the industrialised
> >countries is collected, billions of gallons a year aren't collected.
> >Apart from the waste oil produced by restaurants and food outlets and
> >food processors, an estimated 1.5 million US gallons of grease and
> >oil goes into the sewage system every year for every one million
> >people in some US metropolitan areas. Extended nation-wide that's
> >hundreds of millions of gallons wasted every year. US restaurants
> >produce about 300 million US gallons of WVO a year, much of which
> >ends up in landfills.
> >
> >Like newspapers, bottles and aluminium cans, waste cooking oil won't
> >be recycled effectively without locally based initiatives, it has to
> >start at the source. Local biodiesel brewers around the world are now
> >reclaiming millions of gallons of WVO and turning it into good, clean
> >fuel.
> >
> >Similarly, large amounts of fuel ethanol can be produced from city
> >wastes by local micro-breweries, and the high-protein distillers mash
> >by-product fed to city-farm livestock (or micro-livestock). Large
> >amounts of biogas can be produced from wastes in backyard methane
> >digesters for cooking and heating, and the sludge composted for use
> >as fertiliser.
> >
> >Could enough bio-energy be produced for 900 million people this way?
> >Probably it could. "How much land will it take?" None.
> >
> >See: City farms
> >http://journeytoforever.org/cityfarm.html
> >
> >
> >Bio-regional energy -- India's Talukas
> >
> >Here's another response to the "How much land" question, from the
> >Biofuel mailing list:
> >
> >"We did a study in India where we showed that it is possible to take
> >care of energy needs completely by biomass and its various
> >derivatives for a block of about 100 villages." -- Dr. Anil K.
> >Rajvanshi, Director, Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI)
> >
> >Here's Dr. Rajvanshi's study:
> >
> >Microchips to Potato chips - Talukas can produce all, published as an
> >editorial article in the Economic Times 24 May, 1998, Anil K.
> >Rajvanshi, Director, Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI),
> >Maharashtra, INDIA.
> >http://education.vsnl.com/nimbkar/taluka.html
> >
> >Talukas can provide critical mass for India's sustainable
> >development, Anil K. Rajvanshi, Current Science, Vol. 82, No. 6, 25
> >March 2002
> >http://education.vsnl.com/nimbkar/criticalmass.html
> >
> >India's food and energy self-sufficient Talukas are groupings of
> >about 80-100 contiguous villages pooled together to achieve a
> >critical mass economically. A Taluka can be thought of as a closed
> >biomass and rainwater basin, with a combined population of about
> >200,000 people. There are thousands of them in India. One Taluka
> >studied produced 100,000 tons a year of surplus agricultural residues
> >available for biomass energy production. In conjunction with energy
> >plantations and energy crops this could produce the energy equivalent
> >of 30 million litres a year of petroleum products, filling local
> >energy needs and creating 30,000 local jobs.
> >
> >Dr. Rajvanshi's study became the basis for India's National Policy on
> >Energy Self-sufficient Talukas in 1997 and is being implemented
> >nation-wide by the Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES).
> >
> >Meanwhile India's railways are planting oil-bearing jatropha curcas
> >trees along the railway lines. That's a lot of jatropha curcas trees
> >producing a lot of oil for fuel, again without using any farming land.
> >
> >
> >Negawatts
> >
> >"Using existing technology we can save three fourths of all
> >electricity used today. The best energy policy for the nation, for
> >business, and for the environment is one that focuses on using
> >electricity efficiently," says Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain
> >Institute in the US.
> >
> >"More efficient use is already America's biggest energy source -- not
> >oil, gas, coal, or nuclear power. By 2000, reduced 'energy intensity'
> >(compared with 1975) was providing 40 percent of all U.S. energy
> >services. It was 73 percent greater than U.S. oil consumption, five
> >times domestic oil production, three times total oil imports, and 13
> >times Persian Gulf oil imports. The lower intensity was mostly
> >achieved by more productive use of energy (such as better-insulated
> >houses, better-designed lights and motors, and cars that were safer,
> >cleaner, more powerful, and got more miles per gallon), partly by
> >shifts in the economic mix, and only slightly by behavioral change.
> >Since 1996, saved energy has been the nation's fastest-growing major
> >'source.'" -- Amory B. Lovins
> >
> >"Negawatts powerplant" energy efficiency programs can save large
> >amounts of energy and large amounts of money. 2.1 jobs are created in
> >energy efficiency/conservation in comparison to one new job for an
> >equivalent amount of BTUs in new energy production.
> >
> >  From a message to the Biofuel mailing list:
> >
> >"I remember canvassing the Orlando, Florida area attempting to
> >generate public support for a 'negawatts powerplant' rather than
> >Orlando Utilities Commission expanding Curtis Stanton I into Curtis
> >Stanton II (both coal fired). The most conservative calculations were
> >that a modest to robust energy efficiency program could forestall the
> >need for Stanton II for at minimum 10 years, in turn saving the
> >public literally hundreds of millions of dollars. (Mind you this is a
> >publicly owned utility, with the supposed obligation to serve the
> >public interests.)..."
> >
> >For the rest of the message see: http://snipurl.com/iesa 'Energy
> >Efficiency and "Stuff" in general' (the whole message thread is
> >linked at the end of the page).
> >
> >The Negawatt Revolution, Amory B. Lovins, The Conference Board
> >Magazine, Vol. XXVII No. 9, September 1990, 232kb PDF.
> >http://www.rmi.org/images/other/Energy/E90-20_NegawattRevolution.pdf
> >
> >Mobilizing Energy Solutions, Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins,
> >The American Prospect, Volume 13, Issue 2, January 28, 2002 -- Part 1:
> >http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/2/lovins-a.html
> >Part 2: Energy Forever
> >http://www.prospect.org/print/V13/3/lovins-a.html
> >
> >Energy Library -- articles and studies by Amory B. Lovins of the
> >Rocky Mountain Institute
> >http://www.rmi.org/sitepages/pid171.php
> >
> >
> >Invisible farming
> >
> >Industrial hemp is a high-yielding multi-purpose "fuel and fibre"
> >crop that has great potential for biomass energy. Hemp yields four
> >times as much biomass as a forest can yield. An acre of hemp yields
> >10 tons of biomass in four months, enough to make 1,000 gallons of
> >methanol fuel, with about 300 lb of oil from the seed (about the same
> >as soy).
> >
> >Hemp is widely grown in many countries but not in the US, where it's
> >illegal because of a stubborn confusion with the plant's cousin, the
> >drug marijuana. Industrial hemp is the same species of plant but
> >without the drug. In fact hemp contains another chemical (CBD) that
> >actually blocks marijuana's drug effect -- hemp is not only not
> >marijuana, it could be called "anti-marijuana".
> >
> >The US previously acknowledged the distinction and hemp was widely
> >grown there -- the US State Department still acknowledges the
> >difference internationally. But domestically, growing hemp is banned
> >in the US. In Europe it's subsidised, like oilseed rape and flax.
> >Canada, Russia, Japan, China and dozens of other countries grow large
> >quantities of hemp, while Americans pay $25 million a year for
> >imported hemp fibre and oil products.
> >
> >Meanwhile an estimated 32 million law-breaking Americans smoke
> >marijuana, probably a lot more than that, and that's not counting
> >Canada. Most of the drug is locally produced, not imported. We've no
> >idea what acreage that represents, but it's obviously a major
> >agricultural industry, and it's invisible. How can you hide a crop
> >for 32 million people? It's produced with no extension agencies, no
> >subsidies, no bureaucrats, no chemical corporations, no marketing
> >boards, no Big Agriculture, and with no apparent use of farming land.
> >
> >How would the Americans who claim there's not enough land to grow
> >biofuels explain that? Could enough bio-energy for 32 million people
> >also be produced that way, from harmless industrial hemp, tucked away
> >out of view off the agricultural map and nobody even notices it?
> >
> >Of course it's clandestine and hidden because the US marijuana
> >growers are under pressure from the law, but on the other hand the
> >whole human race is under much more pressure than that to find
> >sustainable answers to its energy problems, and so far we're not
> >being very imaginative about it.
> >
> >However the illegal drug growers might be managing it, it's obvious
> >that people estimating how much land it will take to grow enough
> >biofuels aren't asking the right sorts of questions.
> >
> >Hemp Biomass for Energy
> >http://www.fuelandfiber.com/Hemp4NRG/Hemp4NRG.htm
> >
> >
> >A different approach
> >
> >Replacing fossil fuels with biofuels isn't the answer. Replacing
> >fossil fuels isn't even an option -- current energy use, especially
> >in the industrialised countries, is not sustainable anyway, whatever
> >the energy source.
> >
> >A very large portion of the energy we use is just wasted, and that's
> >where to start, not with the 60 billion gallons of petroleum diesel
> >and 120 billion gallons of gasoline the US consumes each year, not to
> >mention the heating oil and the power supply.
> >
> >A sustainable energy future requires great reductions in energy use,
> >great improvements in energy efficiency, and decentralisation of
> >supply to the local-economy level, along with the use of all
> >ready-to-use renewable energy technologies in combination as local
> >circumstances require.
> >
> >But instead people chase the mirage of the highest biofuels crop
> >yields in the hopes of finding the right answer to the wrong question.
> >
> >The powers-that-be mostly toy with the problem and go right on
> >hitting the good old massive daily fix of fossil-fuel like it's a
> >narcotic.
> >
> >In most of the industrialised countries biofuels are still treated
> >more as an agricultural commodities issue than an energy issue, and
> >the industrial farming lobby pulls the levers. Big Soy runs the
> >National Biodiesel Board in the US, Big Corn the fuel ethanol
> >business.
> >
> >But growing supposedly clean green renewable and sustainable biofuels
> >crops by means of Big Agriculture's unsustainable industrialised
> >agriculture monocropping methods with their heavy dependence on
> >fossil-fuel inputs is hardly the best way of replacing fossil fuels.
> >
> >Once grown, the stuff undergoes the same insanities as the "food
> >miles" fiasco, where food is transported thousands of unnecessary
> >miles before it reaches consumers, with huge waste of energy and no
> >good reason for it. Similarly, why waste energy trucking energy crops
> >to a distant large-scale central processing unit and then waste even
> >more energy trucking the finished fuel all the way back again,
> >instead of processing it and using it right there where it was grown?
> >
> >
> >Small is beautiful
> >
> >There are of course economies of scale in fossil-fuels production,
> >but that's no more the case with biofuels production than it is with
> >food, as we saw above with the example of city farms. The farms of
> >the future are highly productive, low-input/high-output, integrated,
> >mixed, sustainable farms, and they're small farms -- family farms,
> >small and local. All over the world small farms are more efficient
> >and productive than big farms and out-produce them, including the US.
> >See: Small farms fit.
> >http://journeytoforever.org/farm.html#fit
> >
> >As with food crops, so with fuel crops.
> >
> >Also at the local level, the worldwide community of biofuels
> >homebrewers have developed cheap, effective and safe small-scale
> >production methods that produce high-quality fuel and that anyone can
> >use. There are now many kinds of independent small-scale local
> >operations producing and using millions and millions of gallons of
> >biofuels a year, growing fast. Most of it goes right under the
> >official radar, nobody calculates it, nobody has any clear idea of
> >how much it is or of quite who these people are. But they're forming
> >active networks of grassroots-level biofuels producers in many
> >countries, and they have the potential to expand very quickly.
> >
> >The possibilities for localised biofuels production are endless, but
> >it's difficult to see them from the perspective of the dying era of
> >cheap and abundant fossil fuels with it's top-down, centralised,
> >capital-intensive approach, especially with energy production and
> >supply: "How do you make money out of this small-scale stuff? It's
> >bad for business!"
> >
> >In fact it's very good for business -- local business, and that's
> >good for everyone.
> >
> >"Small-scale capitalism works out fine, but as scale increases the
> >departure from real capitalism becomes more pronounced---profits are
> >privatized, but costs are socialized. The attendant repair and
> >maintenance are left to succeeding generations if possible, if not,
> >to present low and middle income taxpayers," says Tvoivozhd, the Wise
> >Old Man of the Homestead mailing list. Indeed so.
> >
> >Coming off fossil-fuels doesn't have to be cataclysmic. More likely
> >the real disasters will come from global warming rather than oil
> >deprivation. The quaint idea that "life without oil" will inevitably
> >mean a massive human "die-off" and for the survivors a return to the
> >allegedly brutal and short lives of the Middle Ages etc etc just
> >because of oil deprivation as some people claim is just nonsense,
> >there's no more substance to it than the idea that there's not enough
> >land to grow "enough" biofuels. We have everything we need to live
> >rich and fruitful lives in a sustainable future in peace and harmony
> >with the rest of the biosphere.
> >
> >Don't expect to read more about such views of energy issues in The
> >Wall Street Journal any time soon. What you might read there is that
> >meanwhile 35 years have gone by since these issues first became
> >apparent, fuel economy in the US is worse now than it was 20 years
> >ago, and 35 unnecessary years' worth of greenhouse gases have been
> >pumped into an ailing atmosphere.
> >
> >Don't wait for governments or anyone else to solve these problems
> >with the same kind of thinking that caused the problems in the first
> >place. Do it yourself -- tend to your own waste of energy and of
> >other scarce resources, shrink your eco-footprint, join a local
> >network, start a network yourself. Make your own biofuel!
> >
> >
> >Cutting fuel costs
> >
> >How to reduce the amount of transportation fuel you use, by Darryl
> >McMahon of Econogics: "It's your planet. If you won't look after it,
> >who will?"
> >http://www.econogics.com/en/savefuel.htm
> >
> >Here's a start on what you can do to make a difference:
> >http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel.org/msg54266.html
> >
> >The US uses 3 times as much and Canada 4 times as much energy in
> >their buildings as Sweden does, even allowing for climate
> >corrections. "There is no conflict between comfort and energy saving
> >in buildings. If you understand how the human body works and design
> >your environment to suit Real People, large energy savings will be
> >made..." See Hakan Falk's Energy Saving Now -- extensive resources on
> >energy efficiency, biofuels, alternative energy technologies and more:
> >http://energysavingnow.com/
> >
> >Cutting down waste -- where to start:
> >http://sustainablelists.org/pipermail/biofuel_sustainablelists.org/
> >2005-October/005691.html
> >
> >
> >Food miles
> >
> >"We bought a basket of 20 fresh foods from the major retailers on one
> >day last month and tracked the food miles it had clocked up. We found
> >apples from America; pears from Argentina; fish from the Indian
> >ocean; lettuce from Spain; tomatoes from Saudi Arabia; broccoli from
> >Spain; baby carrots from South Africa; salad potatoes from Israel;
> >sugar snap peas from Guatemala; asparagus from Peru, garden peas from
> >South Africa; red wine from Chile; Brussels sprouts from Australia;
> >prawns from Indonesia; chicken from Thailand; red peppers from
> >Holland; grapes from Chile; strawberries from Spain and beef from
> >Britain. Our total basket had travelled 100,943 miles." -- Miles and
> >miles and miles: How far has your basket of food travelled? Guardian
> >UK, Special reports, Saturday May 10, 2003
> >http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/focus/story/0,13296,951962,00.html
> >
> >"In 1997 we imported 126 million litres of liquid milk into the UK
> >and exported 270 million litres of milk out of the UK. We imported
> >23,000 tonnes of milk powder into the UK and exported 153,000 tonnes
> >out of the UK. We imported 115,000 tonnes of butter, and exported
> >67,000 tonnes of butter." -- Food Miles - Still on the Road to Ruin?
> >-- Statistics and analysis; a review of local alternatives and
> >recommendations for action. SUSTAIN: The Alliance for Better Food and
> >Farming, 1999
> >http://www.sustainweb.org/publications/downloads/foodmiles_ruin.pdf
> >
> >"Produce arriving by truck traveled an average distance of 1,518
> >miles to reach Chicago in 1998, a 22 percent increase over the 1,245
> >miles traveled in 1981." -- Food, Fuel, and Freeways: An Iowa
> >perspective on how far food travels, fuel usage, and greenhouse gas
> >emissions, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, June 2001
> >http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/pubs/staff/ppp/index.htm
> >
> >"Since 1978, the annual amount of food moved by heavy goods vehicles
> >in the UK has increased by 23 percent with the average distance for
> >each trip also up by 50 percent." -- Food Miles and Sustainability,
> >Mae-Wan Ho and Rhea Gala, Institute of Science in Society, 21/09/05
> >http://www.i-sis.org.uk/FMAS.php
> >
> >"Policies are needed to minimize food import/export, to promote
> >instead, national/regional food-sufficiency, and to reverse the
> >concentration of food supply chains in favour of local shops and
> >cooperatives run directly by farmers and consumers. In addition,
> >there should be government subsidies and incentives for reducing
> >carbon dioxide emissions on farms, and for farms and local
> >communities to become energy self-sufficient in low or zero-emission
> >renewables." -- Food Miles and Sustainability, Mae-Wan Ho and Rhea
> >Gala, Institute of Science in Society, 21/09/05
> >http://www.i-sis.org.uk/FMAS.php
> >
> >"Bringing the food supply closer to home is one of the most effective
> >and powerful strategies we can use to create positive changes in our
> >health, in the environment, in our society, and on this planet." --
> >Bill Duesing, Old Solar Farm, raising certified organic
> >vegetables,and Solar Farm Education, working on urban agriculture
> >projects.
> >http://www.growbiointensive.org/
> >
 


_______________________________________________
Biofuel mailing list
Biofuel.org
http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org

Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html

Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages):
http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel.org/