3 ms·
Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31438659 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31438659 ("The Coming Food Catastrophe (economist.com)", 597 commen
by perihelions 4y ago
Related:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31438659 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31438659 ("The Coming Food Catastrophe (economist.com)", 597 comments)
- "There is scope for substitution. About 10% of all grains are used to make biofuel; and 18% of vegetable oils go to biodiesel. Finland and Croatia have weakened mandates that require petrol to include fuel from crops. Others should follow their lead."
- Filligree 4y agoYes. The timing of this is… utterly absurd.
- azinman2 4y agoExcept you can’t eat the corn that goes into ethanol.
- spacemanmatt 4y agoSo they should grow food on those farms instead.
- bryanlarsen 4y agoYes you can. Not directly, but that corn can be turned into meal or sugar and then baked.
- perihelions 4y agoNot an expert, but Wikipedia seems to say all corn ethanol is made from edible grains, and that the alternative, cellulosic ethanol (made from inedible fibrous parts) has not been commercialized. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_ethanol#Production_process https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_ethanol#Production_proces... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulosic_ethanol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellulosic_ethanol - "However, the much cheaper manufacturing of grain-based ethanol, along with the low price of oil in the 2010s, meant that cellulosic ethanol was not competitive with these established fuels. As a result, most of the new refineries were closed by the mid-2010s and many of the newly founded companies became insolvent. A few still exist, but are mainly used for demonstration or research purposes; as of 2021, none produces cellulosic ethanol at scale."
- rascul 4y agoYou can make whiskey from it, though.