Need for land
NPR ran this very interesting story (by Scott Horsley) on the need for land when making alternatives to "trans fats."
They mentioned that you would need 12.5 million acres (the land equivalent of Massachusetts) to grow enough soy beans to offset all the trans fats that are currently used in America. And of course, this comes in direct competition with increased crop production for biofuels.
So if you're a fan of reducing trans fats and increasing biofuels... make your choice! Actually, I think it just ends up being a balancing act with farmers deciding what is most profitable for them. For me though, reducing our dependence on foreign oil is more important than reducing our use of trans fats.
Tim White
2 comments:
don't worry, when all this added demand for corn and soybeans triggers grocery inflation like we haven't seen since the age of disco, we'll blame some evil conspiracy
haha... yeah. there is a bit of a quandary, huh?
Although, I believe their are some within the Energy Intelligentsia who argue that cellulosic ethanol (sawgrass) won't compete with food crop land.
But feel free to argue that point... I haven't researched that at all.
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