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POPSMagical Thinking vs. Reality amount to $1.05 to $1.38 per gallon, or 42 to 55 percent of ethanol's wholesale market price. Ethanol does not reduce gasoline prices. If you lived in urban areas that used reformulated gasoline last summer -- that's the environmentally "clean" gasoline required for areas with air pollution problems -- you might have paid up to 60 cents a gallon more for gasoline. That's because the federal government required oil refineries to use 4 billion gallons of ethanol in 2006, regardless of price, and gas pump prices last summer reflected the fact that ethanol was twice as expensive as conventional gas in wholesale markets, and far more costly to deliver. The truth is that if ethanol has commercial merit, it doesn't need the subsidy. And if it doesn't, no amount of subsidy will bestow it.
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POPSEnergy 2.0 Energy 2.0 will do for us what the web has already done - decentralize energy production to the point where two or three giant firms cannot even envision controlling the energy markets.
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POPS20 Heads of State in Venezuela for Pact on Cheap Oil The pact has helped Chavez promote his vision of regional independence from the United States. He used the summit to blame Washington for international economic problems, and called US military spending in Iraq "madness." He also denied criticism from Venezuelan opponents who say he is giving away Venezuela's oil wealth. Reading from an opposition statement accusing him of "bribery diplomacy," Chavez mused: "It's very probable this was written in the U.S. Embassy." Some Petrocaribe member countries have the option of paying partially for oil with services or goods such as rice, bananas and sugar. To help boost agriculture, Chavez said Venezuela will donate US$460 million from its oil proceeds annually to create an aid fund providing farming supplies and machinery in the region. He also offered to supply subsidized fertilizer to other countries. ... iht Great man. Any of this in the 'free and fair' USA media? Doubt it!
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POPSProtect Our Food "These "pharma crops" have been grown outdoors in 35 states. They threaten to mix with food crops and contaminate our food supply, with serious implications for public health, farmers, and food producers."
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POPSFather of India's Green Revolution Prepares for Evergreen Revolution
“In every crisis is an opportunity” Swaminathan is once again agitating for revolution -- this time a perpetual one. In the early ‘60s, India grew 12 million tons of wheat every year. Starvation was rampant and the country imported much of its food. Swaminathan, an agricultural geneticist, developed new strains of high-yield wheat for his country and the programs that led to an India that exports food. Today, India grows some 70 million tons of wheat and has become the world's second-largest wheat producer. He says that today India has reached a plateau in production and productivity because a problem of under investment in rural infrastructure. His M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture & Rural Development follows a pro-nature, pro-poor and pro-women orientation to a job-led economic growth strategy in rural areas through harnessing science and technology for environmentally sustainable and socially equitable development.
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POPSThe Case Against Meat Animals also need land. Even if they're penned up in industrial agriculture settings. And it turns out they need a lot more of it than do most crops. The following graph (which comes from this pdf) tracks usable protein yield per acre for a host of foods. Meat doesn't fare well:
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POPSScientists put cocoa under the microscope 70% of the world's cocoa is grown in Africa, and it has remarkable resistance to drought and disease. I wonder however if the study will help the African farmers, or the chocolate manufacturers, due to the the tendency to pay a pittance for the beans, then mark up the price substantially after manufacture. Often the cacao industry is the equivalent of slavery.
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POPSThe Water Shortage Myth "No, there is plenty of water. The problem is that the vast majority of Earth's water is contained in the oceans as saltwater, and must be desalinated before it can be used for drinking or farming. Large-scale desalination can be done, but it is expensive. "
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POPSBuying Power of Food Stamps Declines The declining buying power of food stamps has not gone unrecognized in Washington. In May, Congress passed a farm bill that would raise the minimum amount of food stamps that families receive, starting in October. The bill, which was passed over President Bush’s veto, will also raise for the first time since 1996 the amount of income that families of fewer than four can keep for costs like housing or fuel without having their benefits reduced.
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