butter
03-24-2008, 06:24 PM
As environmentalists know already, growing and using fresh crops to make fuel is bad, bad, bad.
I am not a scientist but I am aware of environmental issues, and I just read an AP article (reprinted on Yahoo news) about the soaring cost of food worldwide.
Here is an excerpt from the article that specifically mentions the effect of biofuel production on food that we eat:
The oil spike has also turned up the pressure for countries to switch to biofuels, which the FAO says will drive up the cost of corn, sugar and soybeans "for many more years to come."
In Japan, the ethanol boom is hitting the country in mayonnaise and miso, two important culinary ingredients, as biofuels production pushes up the price of cooking oil and soybeans.
A two-pound bottle of mayonnaise his risen about 10 percent in two months to as much as 330 yen (nearly $3), said Daishi Inoue, a cook at a Chinese restaurant.
"It's not hurting us much now," he said. "But if prices keep going up, we have no choice but to raise our prices."
Miso Bank, a restaurant in Tokyo's glitzy Ginza district, specializes in food cooked with miso, or soybean paste.
"We expect prices to go up in April all at once," said Miso Bank manager Koichi Oritani. "The hikes would affect our menu. So we plan to order miso in bulk and make changes to the menu."
*****
Of course that's just one single example, and I suppose using "Tokyo's glitzy Ginza district" as evidence of soaring food prices isn't the most effective. However, if you actually go to the below link, you'll read just how dire the food situation has become in third-world countries.
Here is the link to the news article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080324/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/fighting_for_food;_ylt=AlZBeQ3XfycEg0UOxILL4VX9xg8 F
I am not a scientist but I am aware of environmental issues, and I just read an AP article (reprinted on Yahoo news) about the soaring cost of food worldwide.
Here is an excerpt from the article that specifically mentions the effect of biofuel production on food that we eat:
The oil spike has also turned up the pressure for countries to switch to biofuels, which the FAO says will drive up the cost of corn, sugar and soybeans "for many more years to come."
In Japan, the ethanol boom is hitting the country in mayonnaise and miso, two important culinary ingredients, as biofuels production pushes up the price of cooking oil and soybeans.
A two-pound bottle of mayonnaise his risen about 10 percent in two months to as much as 330 yen (nearly $3), said Daishi Inoue, a cook at a Chinese restaurant.
"It's not hurting us much now," he said. "But if prices keep going up, we have no choice but to raise our prices."
Miso Bank, a restaurant in Tokyo's glitzy Ginza district, specializes in food cooked with miso, or soybean paste.
"We expect prices to go up in April all at once," said Miso Bank manager Koichi Oritani. "The hikes would affect our menu. So we plan to order miso in bulk and make changes to the menu."
*****
Of course that's just one single example, and I suppose using "Tokyo's glitzy Ginza district" as evidence of soaring food prices isn't the most effective. However, if you actually go to the below link, you'll read just how dire the food situation has become in third-world countries.
Here is the link to the news article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080324/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/fighting_for_food;_ylt=AlZBeQ3XfycEg0UOxILL4VX9xg8 F