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Poisoning of American - HIgh Fruictose Corn Syrup.
High fruictose corn syrup is not a natural 'sugar' and has some questionable effects on the human body. This is a video everyone who is concerned about nutrition, health and obesity in
America. Some countrieds have banned it! High fruictose corn syrup is not a natural 'sugar' and has some questionable effects on the human body. This is a video everyone who... more -
Algae farm in Mexico to produce ethanol in '09
Rather than squeeze algae for its oil, Algenol wants to turn each algae cell into a tiny ethanol factory.
The Maryland-based company said that business partner BioFields has licensed its technology and committed $850 million to build a saltwater algae farm in the Sonoran Desert in northwest Mexico. Production is scheduled to begin next year.
BioFields paid over $100 million to license Algenol's technology, Algenol CEO Paul Woods said Thursday. He said the ethanol produced at the farm will cost $1 less than today's gasoline, or about $3 per gallon.
Algenol's technology was first developed in the mid 1980s. When oil hit $50 a barrel in 2006, Woods stepped up efforts to commercialize it.
The company chose from a collection of 10,000 strains of algae and used molecular biology to enhance certain traits. Specifically, company engineers enhanced certain algaes' ability to make sugar and, through their enzymes, to ferment sugar into ethanol. Rather than squeeze algae for its oil, Algenol wants to turn each algae cell into a tiny ethanol factory. ... more -
Soaring living costs cloud U.N. climate talks
By Gerard Wynn
BONN, Germany (Reuters) - U.N.-led climate talks began in Germany on Monday on a global warming pact, facing a challenge from critics who say climate measures are partly to blame for high food and energy prices.
The meeting is the second in a series of eight which aim to secure a global climate deal by the end of next year in Copenhagen, to come into force after the first round of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
The talks coincide with swelling public concern about high energy and food prices. This is coupled with criticism that policies to cut greenhouse gases -- especially support for biofuels, as well as carbon taxes and emissions trading -- could make matters worse.
Racing food prices have sparked riots in developing nations such as Haiti and a record oil price has hurt motorists, prompting protests and blockades in Europe. These events, together with an economic slowdown, threaten to distract attention from climate change.
"They're absolutely right to worry about food and energy costs but not addressing climate change would probably increase both," the U.N.'s climate chief Yvo de Boer told Reuters on Monday, referring to crop damage from droughts and higher energy bills swelled by inefficiency.
De Boer rejected the suggestion that carbon-cutting biofuels should be banned, after driving up food prices by using food crops such as corn in the United States to make an ethanol alternative to gasoline.
"I think biofuels are a very important part of the solution," he said.
"If corn on a large scale leads to food shortages and an increase in food prices that's a concern but my assessment is that's not happening, on a large scale. The best solution would be for us all to become vegetarians," because grains are used to feed cattle, added the head of the UN climate agency (UNFCCC). By Gerard Wynn ... more -
Biofuel land demand puts peasants at risk: report
The rise of biofuels is not only adding to the global food price crisis but also poses a risk for peasants, pushed off their land to make way for energy crops, a report prepared for this week's food summit said.
The use of food such as maize, palm oil and sugar to produce fuel has been blamed in part for record high commodity prices which are driving millions of people into hunger, and will be a key issue discussed by world leaders at the Rome summit.
Condemned as a "crime against humanity" last year by the then U.N. food rapporteur, Jean Ziegler, critics of biofuels say they divert nutrition away from mouths and into fuel tanks and compete for land that should be used to grow food.
Both the United States and the European Union have policies promoting the use of biofuels as alternatives as a way to reduce reliance on crude oil.
The report, published on Monday by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) that hosts the three-day summit from Tuesday, flagged up several social and environmental risks of biofuels, but said they were not the main cause of the food crisis.
"Recent hikes in world food prices have not been caused primarily by biofuels," it said, listing the main reasons for the price hikes as poor harvests, low stocks and rising demand in Asia for food and fodder.
By Robin Pomeroy
Reuters The rise of biofuels is not only adding to the global food price crisis but also poses a risk for peasants, pushed off their land to m... more -
grease theft
with the price of gas soaring, a california thief is doind what he has to do so to speak..
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Bush’s food remark irks India - Bush blames growing Indian middle class
Indian politicians from all parties have joined in criticizing US President George W. Bush’s remarks that blamed India for the global food crisis. Although the ruling Congress party has joined the chorus, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has questioned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s silence on Bush’s remarks. The BJP plans to raise the issue in Parliament today.
At a seminar on global economy in Missouri, Bush was quoted by the media as saying: “There are 350 million people in India who are classified as middle class. That’s bigger than America. Their middle class is larger than our entire population. And when you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food, and so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up.”
Follow the link for the complete text. President Bush's statements blaming India for food shortage irk Indians. India is a net exporter of food. Bush may have a less than perfect understanding of cause and effect with regard to the food crisis.
Indian politicians from all parties have joined in criticizing US President George W. Bush’s remarks that blamed India for the global ... more -
Bio-fuels are bio-foolish
The Amazon was the chic eco-cause of the 1990s, revered as an incomparable storehouse of biodiversity. It's been overshadowed lately by global warming, but the Amazon rain forest happens also to be an incomparable storehouse of carbon, the very carbon that heats up the planet when it's released into the atmosphere. Brazil now ranks fourth in the world in carbon emissions, and most of its emissions come from deforestation.
This land rush is being accelerated by an unlikely source: biofuels. An explosion in demand for farm-grown fuels has raised global crop prices to record highs, which is spurring a dramatic expansion of Brazilian agriculture, which is invading the Amazon at an increasingly alarming rate.
The U.S. quintupled its production of ethanol--ethyl alcohol, a fuel distilled from plant matter--in the past decade, and Washington has just mandated another fivefold increase in renewable fuels over the next decade. Europe has similarly aggressive biofuel mandates and subsidies, and Brazil's filling stations no longer even offer plain gasoline. Worldwide investment in biofuels rose from $5 billion in 1995 to $38 billion in 2005 and is expected to top $100 billion by 2010, thanks to investors like Richard Branson and George Soros, GE and BP, Ford and Shell, Cargill and the Carlyle Group.
But several new studies show the biofuel boom is doing exactly the opposite of what its proponents intended: it's dramatically accelerating global warming, imperiling the planet in the name of saving it. Corn ethanol, always environmentally suspect, turns out to be environmentally disastrous. Even cellulosic ethanol made from switchgrass, which has been promoted by eco-activists and eco-investors as well as by President Bush as the fuel of the future, looks less green than oil-derived gasoline.
Meanwhile, by diverting grain and oilseed crops from dinner plates to fuel tanks, biofuels are jacking up world food prices and endangering the hungry. The grain it takes to fill an SUV tank with ethanol could feed a person for a year. Harvests are being plucked to fuel our cars instead of ourselves. The U.N.'s World Food Program says it needs $500 million in additional funding and supplies, calling the rising costs for food nothing less than a global emergency.
Biofuels do slightly reduce dependence on imported oil, and the ethanol boom has created rural jobs while enriching some farmers and agribusinesses. But the basic problem with most biofuels is amazingly simple, given that researchers have ignored it until now: using land to grow fuel leads to the destruction of forests, wetlands and grasslands that store enormous amounts of carbon.
Deforestation accounts for 20% of all current carbon emissions. So unless the world can eliminate emissions from all other sources--cars, power plants, factories, even flatulent cows--it needs to reduce deforestation or risk an environmental catastrophe. That means limiting the expansion of agriculture, a daunting task as the world's population keeps expanding. And saving forests is probably an impossibility so long as vast expanses of cropland are used to grow modest amounts of fuel. The biofuels boom, in short, is one that could haunt the planet for generations--and it's only getting started.
The Amazon was the chic eco-cause of the 1990s, revered as an incomparable storehouse of biodiversity. It's been overshadowed lately b... more -
Food shortages in Haiti
As food prices for staples like beans, corn and rice grow out of reach around the world, hunger in Haiti has become fierce.
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Who will stop the ethanol boondoggle? The Great Cornholio?
Ethanol: It's Unethical.
The whole process of growing, transporting, and converting the corn to fuel requires more energy than is produced. This is only economically possible because of obscene agricultural subsidies given to North American corn producers, subsidies which have added to third-world poverty while creating a surplus of corn -- soon to be deficit... Ethanol: It's Unethical. ... more -
Food Or Fuel?
UN chief calls for review of biofuels policy
· Ban Ki-moon speaks out amid global food shortage
· 33 countries facing unrest as families go hungry
The UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, has called for a comprehensive review of the policy on biofuels as a crisis in global food prices - partly caused by the increasing use of crops for energy generation - threatens to trigger global instability.
"We need to be concerned about the possibility of taking land or replacing arable land because of these biofuels," Ban told the Guardian in Bucharest while attending this week's Nato summit. But he added: "While I am very much conscious and aware of these problems, at the same time you need to constantly look at having creative sources of energy, including biofuels. Therefore, at this time, just criticising biofuel may not be a good solution. I would urge we need to address these issues in a comprehensive manner."
Climate change has been a priority for Ban since he took over from Kofi Annan, and he has embraced the potential of biofuels, derived from plants, as a long-term substitute for fossil fuels. But as food prices have soared - driven by rising demand, high fuel costs, and climate change - the cultivation of biofuels has come under fire for diverting fertile land from food production.
UN chief calls for review of biofuels policy · Ban Ki-moon speaks out amid global food shortage ... more -
The corn has hit the fan
Corn prices climbed to an all time record $6 a bushel as cold, wet weather in the U.S. corn belt threatens to slow planting, adding to concerns over tight supplies.
Heavy rains and some snowfall in corn-growing states in the Midwest and the South are raising the possibility that growers will have to postpone spring planting. That would only increase an already acute supply crunch for corn, which has shot up in value amid soaring demand to make ethanol and feed livestock.
Corn has surged 27 percent this year and appears poised to keep rising after the U.S. government predicted a sharp drop in corn planting. In its annual planting report, the U.S. Department of Agriculture projected that farmers will plant 86 million acres of corn, an 8 percent drop from last year. Corn prices climbed to an all time record $6 a bushel as cold, wet weather in the U.S. corn belt threatens to slow planting, adding to... more -
Time Magazine calls biofuels a scam
Time has weighed in on biofuels, concluding they are a giant scam perpetrated by environmentalists, government, and agribusiness. As government mandates have kicked in, farmers are planting more acreage for corn, which they can sell to ethanol makers. This has driven up food prices, clear cut the Amazon, and likely increased CO2 emissions over just using oil. Time has weighed in on biofuels, concluding they are a giant scam perpetrated by environmentalists, government, and agribusiness. As g... more
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Where Corn is King
King Corn is a documentary Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis made, in which they moved to Iowa and worked as farmers for a year. This pod documents the reactions they received to their film, as they showed it 9 Iowa towns during a "Corn Belt Tour." A cutdown of the documentary is airing on Current TV and will be aired in its entirety on PBS on April 15th. Visit www.kingcorn.net to buy a DVD of the film and learn more! King Corn is a documentary Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis made, in which they moved to Iowa and worked as farmers for a year. This pod do... more
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High-fructose Corn Syrup Bad For Environment
Not only will High Fructose Corn Syrup make you fat while destroying your liver, it is also really bad for the environment. The genetically modified corn used to produce HFCS requires more pesticides and chemical fertilizers than natural corn. It is also not a crop that is rotated, which severely depletes top soil quality.
Once you've decided to eliminate HFCS from your diet, label reading becomes essential. HFCS creeps into food you would not expect to see it, like ketchup and yogurt. Start writing manufacturers, such as Heinz, and tell them you no longer purchase their products because they contain high-fructose corn syrup.
Remember, the revolutionary war started with a boycott of tea. Not only will High Fructose Corn Syrup make you fat while destroying your liver, it is also really bad for the environment. The genet... more -
Mexico Caves to Monsanto
Despite a corn biodiversity unparalleled in the world, Mexico bowed down to companies like Monsanto, allowing genetically modified corn to be grown. The risks are plentiful for a diverse systems such as Mexico's. Naturally occurring corn can be "genetically polluted" by the new genetically modified strains permanently destroying the original.
Furthermore, "Transgenic crops are not safe, and we will lose our sovereignty, because the GM seeds belong to just a few transnational corporations," Miguel Colunga, leader of the Democratic Campesino Front of Chihuahua, a state in northern Mexico said.
IPS reports, "Using seeds patented by companies like Monsanto forces farmers to buy seed every planting season, paying the corporations each time, and puts an end to thousands of years of the traditional practice of saving the best seeds from the harvest to use for the next sowing. "
Mexicans and environmentalists have been fighting Monsanto and other U.S. based companies for three years.
Not only is the environment in danger, but humans who consume the transgenic food put themselves at risk, "transgenic MON-863 maize, belonging to Monsanto, which was authorized for human consumption in Mexico, harmed rats in experiments, according to a confidential report by the company itself which was made public in 2005 by a court order." Despite a corn biodiversity unparalleled in the world, Mexico bowed down to companies like Monsanto, allowing genetically modified cor... more -
Bow Down to King Corn
This cut down of the feature documentary "King Corn" shows us how corn is basically in everything we eat. Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from ... and how it is made. This cut down of the feature documentary "King Corn" shows us how corn is basically in everything we eat. Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, ... more
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Biofuels will Starve Us
Biofuels are driving up the cost of food, making it difficult for poor people to eat, "Biofuel production could push food prices up as much as 20-40% according to The International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington." As we convert more of our food source to fuel, starvation will continue to rise.
Biofuels are bad for the environment. Rain forests are leveled for crops. Only a small percentage of biofuels can actually be considered renewable. Pesticides and GMO corn are used heavily for ethanol.
Biofuels will not reduce our need for foreign oil significantly, "If, in 2006, we had dedicated the entire US corn crop to ethanol production we would have replaced only 12% of the gasoline we used." Biofuels are driving up the cost of food, making it difficult for poor people to eat, "Biofuel production could push food prices up a... more -
Both Sides Cite Science to Address Altered Corn
BRUSSELS-- A proposal that Europe's top environment official made last month, to ban the planting of a genetically modified corn strain, sets up a bitter war within the European Union, where politicians have done their best to dance around the issue.
BRUSSELS-- A proposal that Europe's top environment official made last month, to ban the planting of a genetically modified corn stra... more -
King Corn Iowa Tour - Eldora, IA
Around 90 of Eldora's 2,800 residents braved the ice to join us at the Grand Theatre. Several farmers took issue with the film's discussion of grass-fed beef... Around 90 of Eldora's 2,800 residents braved the ice to join us at the Grand Theatre. Several farmers took issue with the film's discu... more
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King Corn Iowa Tour - Waterloo & Cedar Rapids, IA
Our 4th and 5th stops on the Iowa tour brought us to larger metropolitan areas, where attention seemed to be turning to the role of presidential candidates... Our 4th and 5th stops on the Iowa tour brought us to larger metropolitan areas, where attention seemed to be turning to the role of pr... more
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