corn ethanol: food vs fuel

[freebeard]

Zombie thread stalks the land.

These organizations warned that mixing (comingling) of Enogen corn with corn used for food could have significant adverse impacts on food product quality and performance, e.g. crumbling corn chips (resulting from starch breakdown caused by alpha amylase activity in Enogen grain)

Two things:

1. Creamed corn
   
2. The unused part of the biomass (stalks, leafs, tassels and cob) probably have similar potential as the kernels. Terra Preta or Cool Planet.

OK, three: Ethanol doesn't take food out of the mouths of people so much as beef cattle.

[Xist]

I still want to know who wrote that both Frank Lee and I post links to other sites without saying anything, because I feel that I pretty consistently post quotes and summaries when he does that.

Fructose, a new study finds, has a marked affect on the brain region that regulates appetite, suggesting that corn syrup and other forms of fructose might encourage over-eating to a greater degree than glucose.

and prompts the body to secrete less insulin than does glucose (insulin plays a role in telling the body to feel full and in dulling the reward the body gets from food). Fructose also fails to reduce the amount of circulating ghrelin (a hunger-signaling hormone) as much as glucose does.

From the second link:

“Enogen corn” [...] is a special type of corn developed by Syngenta for ethanol production. It contains a transgene from a bacteria that produces alpha amylase, an enzyme that breaks down corn starch into sugar. Presently alpha amylase enzyme is added to corn in a liquid form during the ethanol production process. Corn hybrids with the Enogen trait technology (i.e. Enogen corn) express alpha amylase enzyme directly in the corn kernel, eliminating the need for liquid alpha amylase in dry grind ethanol production.

Unlike other transgenic corns introduced for insect and herbicide tolerance, Enogen corn was specifically developed for industrial purposes – ethanol production.

[freebeard]

Herbicide tolerance is not for industrial purposes? I missed that.

The only other purpose I can see is intentionally monkey-wrenching the biosphere.

[ksa8907]

A little off topic, but ethanol and biodiesel producers are going to combined cycle units that will generate enough electricity to be self sufficient and possibly push power onto the grid.

Ethanol should get cheaper.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Ethanol doesn't take food out of the mouths of people so much as beef cattle.

I'll do you one better; any money not spent on producing food is taking food out of the mouths of people.

When I am faced with the choice of buying an iPhone, or feeding a person in a third-world for a year, my decision will have an opportunity cost.

Spending resources on ethanol for fuel is no more upsetting than spending resources on livestock. We all have options on how to appropriate funds, and our "vote" is cast with those dollars.

The only travesty is that subsidies distort the true cost of things while making politicians and a select minority of people (businesses) wealthy.

Originally Posted by freebeard

The only other purpose I can see is intentionally monkey-wrenching the biosphere.

Intentionally monkey-wrenching the biosphere sounds more interesting than the millions of years of unintentional monkey-wrenching that has already occurred. Genetic engineering has been going on for ages, and only in the last micro-second of the existence of the universe are we intentionally shaping biology.

Like it or not, the future is genetically engineered everything. In general, we will all be better off for it, but no doubt there will be some negative outcomes as well.

[freebeard]

When I am faced with the choice of buying an iPhone, or feeding a person in a third-world for a year, my decision will have an opportunity cost.

Spending resources on ethanol for fuel is no more upsetting than spending resources on livestock. We all have options on how to appropriate funds, and our "vote" is cast with those dollars.

If you use dollars, trickle-down voodoo will absorb your good intentions, and you end up feeding the army that oppresses that person. Send them Bitcoin directly.

[Frank Lee]

Send 'em food directly- they need the energy to sustain out-reproducing their environment.