[Dialogue] ENERGY DEPLETION

[David Walters]

I find hard to believe that ethanol is the sole cause of the
increased cost of corn of corn in Mexico. The Mexican economy is much
more complex than that. Further, it seems to me that the daily diet
of poor Mexicans consists of more than tortillas. Such
generalizations in the article below should cause one to doubt the
valid of the message of the whole article.

This not to say that poverty is a real  and present problem in
Mexico. It certainly is. But hysterical statements like :Ethanol is
horrible" does not help in solving the problem. 

Here is a case in point.Our wonderful USDA spends an enormous amount
of money every year to not farm, yes in case you did not get to not)
farm an enormous amount of cropland in this country. If we could find
a way to release land for production of crops that could be used to
produce ethanol maybe we could have real impact. There would to a
rule that such crops be sold directly to ethanol producers. Doing so
would keep such crop production to influence the commodity market
price for the crop production.

This kind of thinking would be more useful than crying out "Ethanol
is horrible".

David


Ethanol is horrible, and will probably soon die. It can only exist
through huge subsidies, as it costs almost as much energy to create
as it yields. And corn prices have already started rising
drastically. In Mexico, which imports much corn from the US, tortilla
prices have risen 30% over the past three months, setting off a food
crisis down there. People’s income has not increased, and yet the
cost of their main staple has shot out of sight. Upshot? People are
eating less. 

 

It is not a sustainable (or moral) situation to take a food crop and
convert it to something we can burn in our cars. The world needs food
more than we need to drive around in Hummers. 

 

Ethanol production is already destabilizing our neighboring nation.
This before the several hundred ethanol plants currently on the
boards get built
. I’ve been watching this on Spanish-speaking
television news for the past few weeks, and this is building to a
head quickly. The Mexican government is already in an extremely
fragile state, with Obrador claiming that Calderon stole the election
from him using voter fraud. This just makes Calderon’s government
appear even less legitimate. With Mexico’s poor subsisting almost
entirely on tortillas, and no one’s income having increased, people
are being forced to eat less. 

Ethanol will be shut down when it so impacts food prices in the US
that only the wealthy remain untouched. 

Thousands March Over Tortilla Crisis
    Reuters 

    Thursday 01 February 2007 

    Tens of thousands of demonstrators have marched through Mexico's
capital to protest a surge in tortilla prices that has put President
Felipe Calderon under intense pressure. 

    Soaring US demand for ethanol has sent corn prices to their
highest level in a decade, pulling up prices of Mexico's national
food staple. 

    Protesters held up ears of corn and complained that Mr. Calderon,
a conservative accused by leftists of stealing the July 2006
presidential election, was failing to protect them against foreign
market forces. 

    "Calderon isn't just a thief, he's a murderer because he wants us
to die of hunger," Elvira Acevedo, 62, said at the march. 

    Mr. Calderon's leftist election rival, Andres Manuel Lopez
Obrador, is using the surge in tortilla prices to snipe at the
government and he joined the protest march on Wednesday. 

    "The right dehumanises everything. We are living the consequences
of the imposition of a Government dominated by white-collar
criminals. They are a danger to Mexico," the firebrand former Indian
rights activist told supporters in the vast Zocalo square. 

    Corn tortilla prices rose as high as 15 pesos ($1.76) for a
kilogram - roughly 35 of the flat corn patties - in recent weeks as
the corn market tightened. Mexico imports corn from the United States
to top up its domestic production. 

    Mr. Calderon responded this month by persuading producers, makers
and retailers to cap their prices so tortillas would sell at no more
than 8.50 pesos (99 cents) a kilogram, but local media say some
vendors are still charging up to 12 (1.40). 

    Before the crisis, tortillas sold at around 5 pesos (58 cents)
per kilogram. 

    Mr. Calderon has won praise at home and abroad for sending out
thousands of troops to hunt down drug cartels since he took office on
December 1, but what is being dubbed a "tortilla crisis" for the half
of Mexico that lives on $5 ($6.45) a day or less is stealing
headlines. 

    Mr. Lopez Obrador held massive street protests that crippled
Mexico City after the fiercely contested presidential election but
Mexico's top election court threw out his fraud allegations and Mr.
Calderon was able to take office. 


---- Original Message ----
From: vnatali at frontiernet.net
To: dialogue at wedgeblade.net
Subject: Re: [Dialogue] ENERGY DEPLETION
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2007 16:45:31 -0800

>The following are comments from Steve Natali, a geologist in
>petroleum
>exploration.  I had asked about ethanol as a reasonable substitute
>for
>gasoline. He also sent the Reuters article, printed below his
>comments.
>
>Gini Natali
>
>Comments from Steve Natali:
>
>Ethanol is horrible, and will probably soon die. It can only exist
>through
>huge subsidies, as it costs almost as much energy to create as it
>yields.
>And corn prices have already started rising drastically. In Mexico,
>which
>imports much corn from the US, tortilla prices have risen 30% over
>the past
>three months, setting off a food crisis down there. People's income
>has not
>increased, and yet the cost of their main staple has shot out of
>sight.
>Upshot? People are eating less.
>
>It is not a sustainable (or moral) situation to take a food crop and
>convert
>it to something we can burn in our cars. The world needs food more
>than we
>need to drive around in Hummers.
>
>Ethanol production is already destabilizing our neighboring nation.
>This
>before the several hundred ethanol plants currently on the boards get
>built.. I've been watching this on Spanish-speaking television news
>for the
>past few weeks, and this is building to a head quickly. The Mexican
>government is already in an extremely fragile state, with Obrador
>claiming
>that Calderon stole the election from him using voter fraud. This
>just makes
>Calderon's government appear even less legitimate. With Mexico's poor
>subsisting almost entirely on tortillas, and no one's income having
>increased, people are being forced to eat less.
>Ethanol will be shut down when it so impacts food prices in the US
>that only
>the wealthy remain untouched.
>Thousands March Over Tortilla Crisis
>    Reuters
>    Thursday 01 February 2007
>    Tens of thousands of demonstrators have marched through Mexico's
>capital
>to protest a surge in tortilla prices that has put President Felipe
>Calderon
>under intense pressure.
>    Soaring US demand for ethanol has sent corn prices to their
>highest
>level in a decade, pulling up prices of Mexico's national food
>staple.
>    Protesters held up ears of corn and complained that Mr. Calderon,
>a
>conservative accused by leftists of stealing the July 2006
>presidential
>election, was failing to protect them against foreign market forces.
>    "Calderon isn't just a thief, he's a murderer because he wants us
>to die
>of hunger," Elvira Acevedo, 62, said at the march.
>    Mr. Calderon's leftist election rival, Andres Manuel Lopez
>Obrador, is
>using the surge in tortilla prices to snipe at the government and he
>joined
>the protest march on Wednesday.
>    "The right dehumanises everything. We are living the consequences
>of the
>imposition of a Government dominated by white-collar criminals. They
>are a
>danger to Mexico," the firebrand former Indian rights activist told
>supporters in the vast Zocalo square.
>    Corn tortilla prices rose as high as 15 pesos ($1.76) for a
>kilogram -
>roughly 35 of the flat corn patties - in recent weeks as the corn
>market
>tightened. Mexico imports corn from the United States to top up its
>domestic
>production.
>    Mr. Calderon responded this month by persuading producers, makers
>and
>retailers to cap their prices so tortillas would sell at no more than
>8.50
>pesos (99 cents) a kilogram, but local media say some vendors are
>still
>charging up to 12 (1.40).
>    Before the crisis, tortillas sold at around 5 pesos (58 cents)
>per
>kilogram.
>    Mr. Calderon has won praise at home and abroad for sending out
>thousands
>of troops to hunt down drug cartels since he took office on December
>1, but
>what is being dubbed a "tortilla crisis" for the half of Mexico that
>lives
>on $5 ($6.45) a day or less is stealing headlines.
>    Mr. Lopez Obrador held massive street protests that crippled
>Mexico City
>after the fiercely contested presidential election but Mexico's top
>election
>court threw out his fraud allegations and Mr. Calderon was able to
>take
>office.
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net
>[mailto:dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net]On Behalf Of David & Lin
>Zahrt
>Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 6:13 AM
>To: Order Ecumenical; Dialogue ICA
>Subject: [Dialogue] ENERGY DEPLETION
>
>I have watched the "ethanol craze" build in Iowa. It is driven by the
>universal awareness that we are participating globally in Energy
>Depletion.
>I see it as a 'quick fix' being exploited by agribusiness and the oil
>industry.
>
>Ethanol will be a by-product of the corn raised in Iowa. Aside from
>some of
>the left over by-products it is a wash--we use up as much energy as
>we
>produce, and we use up (as in exhaust) an unbelievable and
>consistently
>ignored amount of water and soil resources . It is an attempt to use
>soil
>and water to turn petroleum into energy.
>
>The local agriculturalist believes it will help him/her because it
>will
>raise the price of a bushel of corn. At the moment the price of corn
>is the
>recipient of a price support program which means that it is sold for
>less
>than it costs to produce, the balance of which is made up by
>government
>subsidy. That, of course, allows Cargill and Archer, Daniels, Midland
>to
>purchase corn for less than it costs to produce so they can
>manufacture corn
>syrup and corn oil, ingredients that have been coveted by the fast
>food
>industry, and which have made a major contribution to the epidemic of
>obesity in the US.
>
>I would like to believe that I am looking at the real trends rather
>than
>being consumed by pessimism--that I am willing to take the 'blinders'
>off
>and face the real future we, as a society, are in the process
>creating. I am
>constantly on the lookout for individuals, groups, movements, with
>whom I
>could collaborate to set a new trend in motion. I belong to Practical
>Farmers of Iowa--sustainable agriculture; Iowa Prairie
>Network--protecting
>and restoring natural habitat; NW Iowa Sierra Club Group; Center
>for(If you
>know of any please inform me)
>
>I recently received a mailing (always suspicious of unsolicited
>mailings and
>phone calls) from a group that calls themselves the International
>Energy
>Depletion Institute (IEDI), located in Tennessee. I would scan the
>mailing
>but I am under the impression that it would have to come as an
>attachment
>and these list-serves don't accept attachments. Has anyone else
>received
>such a mailing?
>
>In an attempt to find out more about the IEDI I went to the internet.
>Google
>has nothing in the first 10. Yahoo doesn't either. Does anyone have
>information on the background of IEDI?
>
>The mailing was 6-8.5x11 pages. This is the beginning of one of the
>pages.
>Sample from one of the pages
>
>"OIL IS FOOD
>6 BILLION HUMAN BEINGS SIMPLY CANNOT SURVIVE ON THIS PLANET WITHOUT
>OIL. IT
>IS ESTIMATED THAT THE NATURAL CARRING CAPACITY OF THE EARTH IS
>PROBABLY
>SOMEWHERE BETWEEN ONE & TWO BILLION PEOPLE AT BEST.
>
>            This sobering assessment does not, in our opinion, take
>into
>consideration the environmental degradation of the Industrial Age or
>the
>impact of future Global Warming. Fossil Fuels have magically turned
>the
>planets depleted top soils into abundant cropland. Just take a look
>at the
>graph below. The evidence is undisputable!! OIL IS FOOD!..."
>
>
>I'm asking for feedback because I think the IEDI is on to something
>important. I am suspicious of unsolicited mass mailings and the fact
>that I
>find no background info on the internet.
>
>David Zahrt
>< chbnb at netins.net <mailto:chbnb at netins.net> >
>
>
>
>
>