The latest World Development Report on Agriculture- 2008 quotes that in the conversion process "One full tank of a sport car requires as much food that is suffcient for a person for a year". This decides the priorities of the future world.
Let us pls understand that just a small diversion of veg oil to bio fuel in Europe and US has resulted in unprecendented rise in price of cooking oil the world over ! India is so short of veg oil that we have to import almost half of our needs. Let us get into the craze of biofuels, wherein we will grow oil for cars in europe ! There is a limited benefit of biofuel though, especially for our villages which do not have adequate electricity, where biofuel can drive water pumps, flour mills, and oil ghanis, all for village need, making the village self-sufficient in energy needs, while also creating new employment opportuniites within the village !!
RE:RE:Biofuel for cars - boon or bane ?
by ritu bora on Mar 08, 2008 12:07 PM Permalink
Agreed Dr. Vadke. We dont want another struggle viz., Food security Vs Energy security
RE:Biofuel for cars - boon or bane ?
by R Tyagi on Mar 08, 2008 12:19 PM Permalink
Dr Vadke, The use of biofuel is not the sole major reason behind price increase of cooking oil, a lot of factors - rise in global needs (The world population is now over 6.7 billion), decrease in agricultural land, inflation, etc have caused a demand-supply gap, thus giving distributors a chance to cash-in on the opportunity. Regarding village energy needs, in my opinion the villages have been the most basic and still self sufficient units in all terms specifically social, economic and also energy efficiency. Though with time, coupled with an explosive growth in population and increased pressure on land resources, the equation changed. Economics forced villagers into use of fertilizers of non organic origin (thus requiring additional source of energy). Economics also dictated needed to move crops to cold storages that again need additional sources. Health considerations favored gas stoves over traditional ones. In conclusion, a lot of resources had to be brought in an otherwise self sufficient cycle to sustain the population we are today and help us grow. There may not be a straight solution, but when we can we should try to control which affects the climate most. R R Tyagi
As the old adage Live Simple Think High, we have made things so complicated for ourselves that we spend most of our life spending alternatives to what we keep enjoying rather than using the same old method which is good for both nature and man.
