An Ally Speaks on Food versus Fuel

Indur Goklany of the Cato Institute in Fuels vs. Food addresses the foolishness of the choice made in the U.S. to turn farmland to the purpose of producing ethanol from corn and of the European Union to turn palm oil into biodiesel fuel. He talks about its effect on the poor in the developing world, the lack of net energy production from either ethanol or biodiesel, and the choice to turn more land from animal habitat to the production of fuel for man.

I would have no problem with using land to make fuel, if we really were able to produce significant net energy at a marketable price without subsidies. That we cannot do this is enough to make the choice to subsidize ethanol or biodiesel fuel production as very foolish one.