[Vision2020] An Inconvenient Truth: Local Hunters & Biofuels?

Wed Aug 23 11:24:16 PDT 2006

Megan et. al.

Your comment on vegetarianism resulting in less fossil fuel use to produce
the food compared to a more meat eating diet is excellent.  Fossil fuels are
so integrated into every aspect of our economy it is easy to forget the
fossil fuel costs hidden everywhere.

Consider, though, the local hunter who kills a deer a few miles from his
home, and does their own butchering...They are getting a lot of food with a
minimal fossil fuel impact, an entirely different situation from the beef
grown in Brazil on former rain forest land, cut and burned to make way for
highly profitable cattle, releasing massive amounts of CO2, beef then
raised, transported and sold to the USA, again using more fossil fuel in the
process.  Talk about an argument for local food to reduce CO2 emissions,
even if it is a locally "grown" deer!  Depending on how the food was
fertilized, grown, harvested and transported, in some cases a local wild
deer might provide more food for less fossil fuel use than vegetarian food.
We should consider that keeping the deer meat frozen for months will have a
fossil fuel impact associated with this energy use... I suppose the meet
could be dried and salted or something, removing this energy use.  And if
everyone in the Quad cities area was getting their meat from local deer,
could the deer population remain stable or decline?

Also, about your use of biofuels, if you can run your biofuel vehicle on
what would otherwise be thrown away vegetable oil from restaurants, what a
deal, and, as you pointed out, "carbon neutral."

However, biofuels are only truly carbon neutral when the entire process of
growing, harvesting and processing the biofuel and delivering it to vehicles
does not use fossil fuel.  Some systems of biofuel production show a limited
gain in reduction of fossil fuel use and CO2 emissions when considering all
fossil fuel impacts.  Much of the fertilizer and the energy for the
machinery for large scale agriculture come from petroleum.  The US ethanol
industry seems like it might radically reduce our need for foreign oil, and
reduce CO2 emissions, but according to this detailed analysis, this is
questionable:

http://petroleum.berkeley.edu/papers/patzek/PublishedEDS2005.pdf.

If this analysis is even just mostly correct, ethanol from corn is not a
profound solution to dependence on foreign oil or lowing CO2 emissions.

Almost certainly the vegetable oil from restaurants that you use for biofuel
came from biomatter grown, harvested, processed and transported with fossil
fuels.

Also, to rely on biofuels on a large scale to replace fossil fuels might
have a very negative impact on food production, taking land for fuel away
from food.

However, the new cellulosic biofuel process allows for less upstream fossil
fuel impacts to produce biofuel, some claim, and can use straw or wood
chips, not food biomatter.  But the efficiency of a entire biofuel
production/delivery system using this more sophisticated process, a system
that would need to be mostly powered with biofuels or other CO2 neutral
energy to really be mostly independent of fossil fuels, still remains in
question.

Allan Greenspan, former head of the Federal Reserve, was on C-Span recently
lecturing members of the US Congress on our need to stop dependence on
foreign oil, and mentioned the cellulosic biofuel potential in Idaho as a
solution.

Supposedly Iogen from Canada was going to open a large scale cellulosic
biofuel production plant in Southern Idaho, utilizing Idaho's huge
agricultural production of straw, if I recall correctly:

http://www.free-press.biz/2-2006/Cellulosic-Ethanol.html

Does anyone know if this plant is being built or is still planned?.

I just answered my own question, assuming this news is accurate at the link
below.  Construction may start the Fall of 2007.   Idaho may become a major
player in biofuels if this plant is built and is economically successful,
but note Iogen wants US loan guarantees to cover investors losses if the
project fails.  This does not inspire confidence:

http://domesticfuel.com/?p=614

-----

Ted Moffett

On 8/23/06, Megan Prusynski <megan at meganpru.com> wrote:
>
>  I haven't seen the movie yet (gasp!) since I've been traveling a lot
> lately, but I do plan to see it. I find it rather funny that Al Gore's
> lifestyle, like most politicians, is pretty much the opposite of how we need
> to be living if we hope to combat global warming... but at least he's
> willing to admit global warming is a serious threat, and that it exists.
>
> I think it is up to each individual to change their lifestyle and make
> some sacrifices for the environment's sake, obviously waiting for our
> government to take action on global warming isn't working so well. Americans
> don't usually like to be told that they need to make sacrifices, though, but
> there are a lot of little things we can do to create positive change that
> are relatively easy. I've been trying consciously to decrease my footprint
> the last few years, so I have some ideas on where to start, but obviously
> these things need to happen on a grand scale...
>
> So here's what I've done recently in a small effort to make my lifestyle
> line up with my ideals and try to curb global warming...
>
> 1. Went vegetarian. Best decision I have ever made. I won't discuss all of
> the numerous reasons I made this decision (animal welfare, aversion to
> factory farming, health, world hunger, beliefs, etc...) but a major reason
> was the environment. Nearly half the water and 80% of the agricultural land
> in this country are used to raise animals for food. More than one-third of
> all the fossil fuels produced in the US are used to raise animals for food.
> Eating lower on the food chain is simply less wasteful: it takes about 20
> times more energy to produce meat than it does to produce plants for food.
> If more of us ate a plant-based diet instead of a meat-based one, we would
> lower our energy needs, contribute a hell of a lot less pollution, and save
> precious water and land resources as well. (Check out
> http://www.goveg.com/environment.asp for more info).
>
> 2. Converted my car to run on bio-fuels and invested in a bike trailer.
> For in-town errands, my boyfriend and I use a bike with a trailer that fits
> all our groceries. For road trips, we use our newly converted VW bus that
> runs on waste veggie oil & bio-diesel. Bio-fuels are carbon-neutral (the
> plants used to grow them compensate for the carbon emitted when they are
> burned), have lower emissions, and can be grown domestically, reducing our
> need for foreign oil (and therefore war!). Any diesel vehicle can be
> converted to run on waste vegetable oil by installing a kit with an extra
> veggie oil tank. If you're interested, I'm sure my boyfriend (an engineering
> alumni from UI) wouldn't mind making a living off of converting vehicles.
> Running on grease is better for longer trips, since you have to warm up on
> diesel or bio-diesel, and yes, the exhaust does smell like french fries.
> Speaking of veggie oil, does anyone know of any restaurants (other than the
> Breakfast Club, who graciously supplies us with oil each week) that want a
> better way to recycle their waste vegetable oil from fryers? Bio-fuels are
> only one of many many alternative energy & fuel sources that I hope become
> more popular.
>
> 3. I'm in the process (always) of learning to live more simply, eat more
> locally-grown food, and simply thinking about the environmental consequences
> of every action. By being more conscious and spreading that consciousness,
> we can make green living the norm. Society needs to work towards
> sustainability, one person at a time.
>
> Just thought I'd share my ideas on the subject of living more sustainably
> and curbing global warming through a change in lifestyle. What is everyone
> else doing to help this problem? :)
>
> peace!
>
> ~megan
>
> *
> *
>
> *[Vision2020] Inconvenient Truth: What you gonna do?*
> *Nils Peterson* nils_peterson at wsu.edu <vision2020%40moscow.com?Subject=%5BVision2020%5D%20Inconvenient%20Truth%3A%20What%20you%20gonna%20do%3F&In-Reply-To=>
> *Tue Aug 22 06:40:42 PDT 2006*
>
>
> So did you see Al Gore's movie? My sister, the infamous 'Rock Doc' of the
> DNews went, prepared to debunk Gore's latest invention since the Internet.
> She came away saying the science was solid, but not saying she had any
> actions in mind.
>
>
> My immediate thoughts are along the lines of conservation rather than
> running out to by a Prius.
>
>
> Which folds into another thought that has passed through v2020. I posted a
> response to talk about making an 'internal bypass' of Hwy 8 along the old
> RR
> route between downtown and UI. Aaron Ament later told me he'd biked the
> route to look closer.
>
>
> If we were to heed Gore and cut car trips down we wouldn't need the
> bypass.
> Just a thought
>
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