'CORNY' FOOD, 'CORNY' FUEL AND THE 'CORNY' COUNTRY!

If food, clothing and shelter are considered the fundamental pre-requisites for decent living, industrialized world has added another fundamental need in the form of gasoline without which their population cannot manage their life. The quality of life is intimately dependent on automobiles and cheap gasoline. The over dependence on fossil fuel and the oil shocks of sixties and 2008 when crude oil prices registered uncontrolled escalation made the world think of alternate energy options with renewable potential. One of the alternatives was use of ethanol as a substitute or supplement to fossil fuel so that the over dependence on the latter can be brought down progressively. Ethanol can be made from a number of carbon sources like sugar cane, cereals like corn or cellulosic substrates through bio-tech route.

Corn, also known as Maize is one of the most commercialized crops in the history of mankind and its cultivation is universally practiced in all the continents. World-wide production is estimated at around 770 million tons with US alone contributing about 40%. While it is used both as a human food as well as animal feed, it has many other non-food uses which makes it unique in some way. The US society is so dependent on corn even small price fluctuations in the commodity market can reflect on the lives of the citizens. Nearly all the chickens and 93% of beef reared in USA are fed corn exclusively. Hamburger, chicken sandwich and french fries have corn connection. Almost all sweetened beverages are based on High Fructose Syrup derived from corn solids. Corn starch is an important food adjunct that finds hundreds of uses in food as well as non-food industries. French fries are made using corn oil as the frying medium. The over dependence of the US food industry on corn is reflected in the fact that three major food chains Wendy's, McDonald's and Burger King, account for more than half the restaurants in the country with sales of more than $100 billion a year and their main menu is built around hamburger, chicken sandwich and fries. A customer who consumes a combination of the above three items in any fast food outlet derives 50% of daily calories, 80% of carbohydrate, 75% of protein and 100% of fat requirements a day!

Though solar energy, wind power, wave energy, geothermal energy, ocean current energy etc have been often talked about as renewable energy options, practical constraints make their global adoption beset with logistical and economic road blocks. Nuclear energy is lately coming into play and can be a potential source of unlimited energy but the problem of radiation hazard posed by the spent fuel is yet to be fully addressed. The dual use of atomic reactors and fuels for both energy and nuclear bombs poses further restrictions on their application world-wide. Most popular choice so far has been ethanol that is used in blends with gasoline. Brazil uses 100% sugar cane derived ethanol in 50% of the automobiles in that country while others run on flexi engines which can use both blends and as well as ethanol alone. In USA and many other countries 10% ethanol blended gasoline is progressively replacing 100% gasoline in order to reduce the dependence on non-renewable petroleum fuels. In 2004 USA used 3.5 billion gallons of corn ethanol for fuel blending and mandated the petroleum industry to use 9 billion gallons in 2009 and 36 billion gallons by 2022. Since 2004 corn production increased globally by 51 million tons of which 98% was used up for producing ethanol for automobile industry. The paradox was that food demand during the same period increased by 30 million tons causing significant supply demand distortions in global markets.

What is galling is that energy dynamics do not favor corn as an efficient converter as energy yield in the form of ethanol from this food grain is less than one third of the energy input needed to raise, process and convert it to energy! It is unfortunate that at a critical time in the fight for survival by the mankind, a few nations indulge in such profligacy and ostentatious wastage. But for the massive subsidy provided to the rich farming communities, corn would never have been able to exert the influence it enjoys to day in deciding on the destiny of nations like USA and push the world to the brink of a disaster that is waiting to happen.

There was a time when affluent countries like USA used to ridicule small countries depending on one or two commodities for survival and the term "Banana Republic" was liberally used to club these countries. Probably countries like Malaysia (Palm Oil), Philippines ( Coconut and Pineapple), Colombia(Coffee), Ivory Coast (Cocoa), Mauritius (Sugar) etc all fall into this category. It is the sign of changing time that USA to day has joined this club by its over dependence on corn, deserving the epithet " Corny Country". India and China are fortunate in having a diversified basket of agricultural, horticultural, livestock and fishery commodities, not too much depending on one or the other and enjoying the position in the top five producers of the world. The food consumption habits are also so diversified that the staples are based on a variety of cereals, pulses and oil seeds, fruits and vegetables and others produced within the country.


V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/

THE GASOLINE- FOOD NEXUS

The spiraling prices of gasoline across the world seem to be having ripple effects on many other fronts also. The inflationary tendencies witnessed in many Asian and African countries are attributed to the petroleum prices going north, at one time almost touching $150 a barrel. With many countries including those who were net exporters of oil are dependent on oil produced in the Middle East, Russia and South America. Most dramatic case is that of Indonesia, one of the major producers of oil becoming a net importer since 2004 because of increased consumption and production declines to the extent of 40% as the sources of oil are drying up. India has always been an importer of oil meeting 70% of its needs by imports and naturally the consequent escalation in the cost of imports is bound to be felt in all spheres of life. The rise in inflation from 4% just a year back is approaching 12% now causing severe strains on the national economy and untold miseries to the less affluent section of the society. If staple foods like rice, wheat, pulses and edible oils are becoming costlier by more than 50-70% compared to the prices prevalent last year, one can imagine the plight of population in the country whose income rise is way behind the inflation.Though this is a global phenomenon the effect is more dramatic and debilitating to developing countries whose capacity to withstand the inflationary monster which challenges their right to survive, is practically nil. On one hand the rise in oil prices is being attributed to rabid speculation associated with forward trading, but many economists feel it is simply a situation responding to the classic demand-supply distortions in the world market. As a support to the latter argument, it is pointed out that practically all commodities including food, cement, steel and a host of others have been climbing the price ladder independent of the rise of oil prices during the last one year. Interestingly, a critical analysis of demand profile for oil during the last few months indicates that more than 90% of the consumption of increased oil production originated in developing countries like India and China where automobile density is increasing faster than before and purchasing power is growing significantly with GDP rises of 8-10%during the last few years. The moot question is who should curb oil consumption if the exhaustible energy sources like petroleum are to be conserved? The developing countries with very high per ca pita income or the less fortunate fellow countries coming under the umbrella of developing world with larger aspirational goals to achieve? It is a valid case for some to argue that the huge petroleum subsidies being doled out in many developing countries in Asia and Africa do not discourage consumption and if the the market price distortion is set right demand for oil could go down. Even the subsidized kerosene distribution in countries like India is being held responsible for rise in Aviation Fuel prices. However if Kerosene prices in these countries are to reflect market realities, the alternative would be massive deforestation in many countries to meet the need for cooking fuel in the form of firewood, an ideal recipe for environmental disaster that will not recognize any mundane national boundaries in spreading chaos and misery all around. According to Al Gore the Nobel Laureate and a passionate advocate of renewable energy tapping of solar and wind energy can alleviate most of the ecological disasters that the world is facing to day if only adequate attention and investment is made. Where there is a will, there is of course a way out for any thing and every thing man confronts. The resources are there, technologies are there, money is there but what is lacking is the conviction and the will to look for changes that are earth-friendly. Brazil had set the earliest example of using renewal energy by using ethanol; from sugar cane in the gasoline blend to extend the available fossil fuels.Use of spent plant oils in Europe was another welcome initiative as long as virgin palm oil and other edible oils were not diverted for use in automobiles. The mandated use of ethanol in gasoline in USA has already diverted 20% of its corn crops, a valuable edible material sufficient to ward off hunger and keep alive millions of human beings, for producing ethanol exclusively for blending automobile fuel. It is cruel for George W Bush, the President of USA, to blame countries like India and China for the escalating prices of food grains and edible oils in the world market because of small increases in food consumption in these countries due to marginally higher per capita income, implying that aspiring to eat better and more nutritious food is a crime! He can only ignore at his peril that almost 30% of the population in his country is courting disaster day by day by becoming obese due to food over-consumption, 50-200% more than that required by a normal human being for a healthy life. If only 10% of what is wasted in USA is spared, it can feed 30 million famished people on the earth besides influencing global food prices in a positive way. Globalization will lose its meaning and relevance if it exposes more and more people, especially in developing countries to the pangs of hunger with each passing day, widening the already existing wide divide between the haves and the have-nots. . .

V.H.POTTY