Don't Feed Your Car Corn!

“Grain is good for bread, not ... cars.” So says Marcos Jank, President of Unica (Sugar Cane Industry Union, SP in Brazil).

Does that mean switching to sugar for fueling vehicles? Will sugar have the same effect on cars as it does on humans, making them hyperactive?

A Time magazine article entitled The Clean Energy Scam, by Michael Grunwald, asserts that biofuels are part of the problem, not the solution, to global warming. Has the American public been taken in by a hoax (started, undoubtedly, by Iowan farmers) that using soybeans or corn to fuel their cars is a way of contributing to the saving of our planet?

Common sense says that it takes space to grow corn and soybeans. If that space is used for plants that will be turned into fuel, where's the space to grow the plants that will be used for human consumption? Is farming in Iowa having an effect how many trees are slaughtered in the rain forests of the Amazon? If so, why are all the presidential candidates supporting the use of ethanol? (Answer to that last one is a nobrainer: They want the votes of those conspiring Iowan farmers.)

For an interesting discussion on this, including a response to the article by Time, check out Dilbert's (Scott Adams') blog, “Minimum Requirement for President.”