It is as if the world has taken a petroleum-based ecstasy tablet. The scientific and media worlds have fallen in love with petroleum products and have condemned Biofuels.

The media says Biofuels contribute to the increased price of foods by taking land that would otherwise be dedicated to food production.

However the facts are:
• The NSW Minister for Health sites the toxins from vehicle exhaust as responsible for killing more people than traffic fatalities (600-1400 annually in Sydney alone).
• International conflicts over petroleum resources are responsible for killing thousands upon thousands.
• CO2 emissions resulting from the combustion of fossil fuels will literally choke the planet till we perish.
• Global demand for food production is growing at 3.3 % per annum - compared with the historic average of 2.3 %.
• The amount of arable land per capita is decreasing (.33 hc in 1977 to .19 hc in 2010).
• The issue is NOT the production of Biofuels, the issue is the cost of fossil fuels, and its impact on the price of food
• It is predicted that the cost of food production and fuel will continue to rise proportionately.
• The International Energy Agency projects severe energy supply shortage by no later than 2015.

These facts characterize a downward spiral that inevitably leads to famines, social unrest, and disease permeating many of the poorer nations of the globe.

The only options to breaking the cycle are:
1. Reduce the demand for food production
2. Increase the amount of food production
3. Reduce the cost of petroleum, and thereby, the cost of food.
4. Increase the amount of arable land.

Option #1 will implement itself as social unrest, starvation, and disease slowly reduce the number of inhabitants on Earth. Option #1 is really an outcome, not an option, but Option #1 will occur if Options #2, 3 and 4 don’t.

Biofuels will contribute to the implementation of the humane options #2, 3 and 4.

Biofuels will for the short-term marginally increase stress on food production. However, during the same time period, continued commercialization of Biofuel will, in the medium-term, mitigate the cost of food production by reducing the cost of fuels.

New generation Biofuel feedstocks will contribute to diversifying rural economies, regenerating depleted soils, decreasing erosion, and reduce toxic pollution and Greenhouse gas emissions. Today’s Biofuel investment will reduce the global community’s pain from diminishing food and fuel supplies.

Until it is accepted that fossil fuels are the problem not the cure, progress in the development of Biofuels will be retarded. The human race will not remain stable as long as consumption of petroleum products increases in a world of diminishing resource, and no alternatives.

Every day that development of Biofuels is restrained; it simply delays the point at which the globe can climb out of this vicious and disastrous cycle.

The media and scientists claim that Biofuels create far more Greenhouse Gases than they eliminate. This is based on the cultivation of virgin lands to accommodate growing Biofuels, or conversely the cultivation of crops that were offset by Biofuel crop cultivation.

Many things have changed since the days of mold-board plows scarring acres of prairie grass to feed the masses. No-till farming is a reality that saves the soil, the moisture, and the soil nutrients. Fields seeded with no-till do not release CO2, they hold the CO2, and demonstrate equal production ratios (yield/dollar cost) compared to traditional techniques.

Releasing mountains of CO2 for Biofuel production is unnecessary, but there is no doubt it can occur in a society conferring little, or no, value on sustainable farming techniques. But this is not exclusive to Biofuel cultivation, it occurs with the irresponsible cultivation of any crop, be it food or fuel.

In this regard, the media is highlighting the need for a world focus on improved farming techniques. This truly admirable thesis is supported by environmentalists and consumers. The world agrees that sustainable farming must be employed or the world will lose the arable land that remains. But this has little to do with Biofuels.

The areas most at risk are the poorer regional economies that are struggling. Rural economies could achieve new resilience through the production of Biofuels. Millions of acres of unproductive land could be transformed into plantations for non-competing and perennial oil seed crops.

Algae farms could diversify regional economies by harnessing the power of miniscule algae. Sited as the Holy Grail of Clean Coal technology; algae could capture CO2 emissions and simultaneously deliver healthier, cleaner, less costly, and socially invigorating Biodiesel fuels.

The list goes on; anaerobic digestion, cellulosic biofuel development and carbon farming are but three “within-our-grasp technologies” that will yield increased production of both food and fuel from less land with increased soil fertility, and a net reduction of CO2 emissions from agriculture. What is the problem with that?

The Media coins the phrase “Biofools” referring to the businesses and consumers that made the effort to do something different.

A more expensive loaf of bread is not as big an issue if you have money to buy it. Transferring the production of energy from the hands of the multinational oil companies and into the hands of farmers and businessmen seems like an intelligent and admirable goal.

Globally, the renewable energy industry accounts for more than 2.5 million jobs and an increasingly robust rural economy. Renewables contribute to economic development, energy security, and the local/global environments.

Subsidizing the growing potential of Biofuels is going to generate better return on investment than the current subsidization of the increasingly difficult extraction of petroleum, and it does not require a war, health insurance, or any more than a cursory examination of the facts to reach this conclusion. It is a clear choice; either acquiesce or rebel against the tyranny of petroleum addiction.

Some industries will experience a loss of power and revenue as Biofuels become commercial, and perhaps that is the point of these Biofuel Bashing Articles. If the point of this blitz is to continue using fossil fuels as a superior and more humane option to investing in Biofuels, then the logic is ludicrously flawed. The real issue is whether there is an undeniable necessity to develop sustainable and renewable alternative fuels, or not?

Speaking as a member of the Biofuel Association of Australia and the Australian Biodiesel Users Group, I do not, nor will I, support environmentally sensitive lands being exploited in pursuit of renewable fuels. I do not consider the recent rash of media as constructive or informative. I disagree with the theme of supporting the dominance of fossil petroleum products.

Lastly, I suggest that mainstream media should consider looking forward when projecting the future. Looking backwards is only a view of where they have been, not where we are going.

__________________
Morris Lyda
The Biodiesel Station
73 Marrickville Road (Corner of Sydney Road)
Marrickville NSW 2204
M: 0404-149-453
Station: 9557-3235

Too many people also seem to lack the intelligence to question what they have been told. The biofuels/land clearing debate is about as logical as saying my dog has 4 legs, cats have 4 legs therefore my dog is a cat.
Biofuels can be made on land cleared of forest therefore all biofuels is made from land cleared of forest, therefore all biofuels are bad. Hey I dont need to clear a forest of trees to collect used oil from my local shop.

All the genuine and real things Morris has said would be less of a problem if everyone thought about what they were being told and questioned it. (or put bluntly there were less idiots in the world basing their buying decisions on what television tells them)

__________________
cheers
Chris.
1990 landcruiser 80, 1HD-T two tank, copper pipe HE+ 20 plate FPHE, toyota solenoids and filters. 1978 300D, elsbett one tank system.

Cap'n, you are but one whereas we are many - (who said that?) I predict that you will not be collecting waste oil for too much longer. The big producers are going to need every drop they can get their hands on to meet the Gov'ments planned 5% blend plan.

Morris, the power of Big Oil to pervert the course of journalism and twist things to suit themselves should not surprise you. Twisting things to their benefit is a full time occupation for some.

It is just so easy to manipulate the flock of sheep that is the world's population through well worded ( or poorly worded depending on where you stand) articles.

__________________
Slippery
Small steps taken one at a time.

Not quite the way I understand it, the 5% is not mandated, but maximum, so I don't think there will be many producers who would/could bother to make biodiesel in this environment. Of course, producers could be looking at planting 2nd gen crops in currently unfarmed land, but no one will bother to do that when all the first gen biofuel producers are being killed off by bad media and poor government rulings.

__________________
Robert Fyvie
Site Admin
Sydney Biodiesel Users' Group and Australian Biofuel Users


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2007 Mazda 6 Diesel ..................................2000 Peugeot 306..........................2001 Landrover (retired)
2L Turbo charged (Common Rail) ...................XTdt 1.9L Turbo ............................Freelander TD4 (Common Rail)
on B100.................................................. ...on B100.......................................on B100

When the big producers are going to go into my cafe's to collect the oil on odd days of the week when its ready, 20L at a time, they are welcome to it. I did mean more however the analogy that biofuels are bad because they need rainforest to be cleared is a flawed argument.

I am still confident the gov't will not do anything to annoy the big oil compaines. No government would stay in power long with $2.90 unleaded.....

__________________
cheers
Chris.
1990 landcruiser 80, 1HD-T two tank, copper pipe HE+ 20 plate FPHE, toyota solenoids and filters. 1978 300D, elsbett one tank system.