Biofuels: Good or Bad?

[sniper]

Originally Posted by Kitty

problem is sniper, which do we grow? Bio fuel or food? We don;t have the land for both

There is no problem Kitty, reason is farmers are being paid by the European Goverment not to grow on at least 10% of their land. They use this 'Set Aside' land for growing the Rape Seed. I have spoken to dozens of farmers that are doing this, but as i said most of it is going to Austria because the UK only has one large crushing machine., though Tesco's are now trying to buy all the Rape Seed up.

Sniper

[sniper]

Originally Posted by Ferhilt

What I want to know is where have all the 100+ mpg cars gone? As soon as they get reported they dissappear. I think the earliest I have heard of a 100+ mpg vehicle was back in the 70s and they pop up every so often but are quickly and mysteriously gone.

IMO its a big coverup. Big oil companies probably hold all these designs in sealed vaults after buying out or blackmailing the designers.

100 MPG Car

Hi Ferhilt,

You are right about the big oil companies cover up, thoough they don't have to blackmail the designers. They blackmail the car manufacturers by offering oil based products to them at a cheaper rate. The car manufacturers actually rely on these deals.
The same is going on for water powered cars. They have been testing several for years but won't put it on general release or if they do it will be so expensive no-one will be able to afford one. The reason being is that the goverment will lose so much in fuel duty and they won't be able to monitor the water used as fuel.

Sniper

[Antipodean Andy]

I think Mike's use of used commodities to create bio-fuel is the ultimate way to go. Didn't know about the extensive growing of rape seed already so perhaps that's also an effective way of combatting any potential use of otherwise good food growing land.

However, recycling used products is certainly something we all need to do more of...that and making better use of wind, water and sunlight. But, as Mike and FH alude to above, accessing many of these alternatives is not often cheap.

[Kitty]

Hmm, am still not convinced. That 'set aside' is meant to be there for wildlife habitats, not as a use for rape seed growth. But never mind...

EU directives also force 10% of crops in this country to be biofuels, such as rape and elephant grass. Please do not get me started on their ecological damage effects.

So thats 20% of land out of the picture.

The prime fertile land, the river flood plains, are now designated for building on. Genius idea from Labour that is.

Lots more land is being lost to other trendy crops, or just not used for arable farming. 3 years ago also saw horses outnumber dairy cows in this country. The gap is widening in favour of the horses now.

Am all for the recycling of old oil and waste, we now recycle at least 85% of our waste as we have the council collected boxes for it. Love it. Just wish we could do our own biofuel.

[Antipodean Andy]

Building housing on flood plains. Looks like selling off the Green Goddesses was a little premature. Going to need a lot of pumps when the flooding continues to happen. Flooding? Oh, must be climate change...never mind, it's just a river doing its usual thing! Sigh.

Horses outnumber dairy cows?! Amazing and a little scary.