Vegetable oil prices rest on EU biofuel vote

Food Navigator ^ | 09/09/13 | Annie-Rose Harrison-Dunn

[Pining_4_TX]

The more vegetable oil used for biofuel production, the less there is for food use. The report lays out forecast consequences for three proposed EU restrictions on the use of crop-based fuels.

[Pining_4_TX]

Using food to fuel machines is one of the dumbest ideas in the history of dumb ideas.

[AU72]

Spain, Italy, and Greece are going to love the big spike in Olive Oil prices.

[Biggirl]

Dumb idea, PERIOD.

[Arthur McGowan]

Butter is better for you, anyway.

[blackdog]

Burning our food, part XXIV.

[LearsFool]

Using food to fuel machines is one of the dumbest ideas in the history of dumb ideas.

That's true. And using vegetable oil to fuel human bodies is another.

Our government is a wholly-owned subsidiary of big business.

[jjsheridan5]

And using vegetable oil to fuel human bodies is another.

Bingo. Cold pressed vegetable oils are ok, in moderation, but the healthiest fats are animal fats. Canola oil is, however, decent at lubricating hinges.

[Pining_4_TX]

People in poor countries depend on vegetable oils. They have few other sources of fat, which is good for you no matter what the food police say.

[The Great RJ]

I am seeing a bumper corn crop growing in the corn belt, but almost half of the crop will go into the ethanol boondoggle. Just look at beef prices to see the result of diverting food into ethanol. Hamburger in my stores is selling for almost what steak was a few years ago.

[GeronL]

It’s staple for the poor, rice, beans, vegetable oil etc are always in the care packages after a third-world disaster.

[Pining_4_TX]

Yes, and our haughty rulers in DC and the UN don’t give a rat’s butt. They will always eat well. Gruel for us and the good food for them. Just ask Michelle.

[alloysteel]

“Renewable” energy sources, such as biofuels, are only ever going to be a niche market, as a way to dispose of waste vegetable or animal source fats from deep-fat cookers, that is no longer suitable for consumption as human or even livestock feed. To divert the freshly produced oilseed crops into fuel use is a poor allocation of resources.

The same goes for producing ethanol from food crops. Only where there is a HUGE surplus of crop, depressing the overall market, should ethanol be an alternative product of processing of the crop.

And that only as whiskey.

If industrial quantities of ethanol are necessary for any purpose, than taking the fraction of natural gas, known as “ethene” or “ethylene”, and combining, in the presence of a catalyst with water, then a very pure form of ethanol is produced WITHOUT using biological process.

C2H4 + H2O —> C2H5OH

FAR less expensive in terms of production costs and impact on the environment.

[Sacajaweau]

Didn’t even buy corn this year.

[Pining_4_TX]

Please don’t confuse the environmental zealots with science. You’re challenging their religion.

[LearsFool]

People in poor countries depend on vegetable oils. They have few other sources of fat, which is good for you no matter what the food police say.

Yes, fat is indeed good for you. Kinda makes you wonder where people in poor countries got their dietary fat before they became dependent on American industrial farming. Perhaps there are natural sources of wholesome fat, instead of this invented "vegetable oil" junk that's polluting the food supply.

(When Hillary Clinton said, "Food should not be used as a weapon," that should've been our first clue that food was being used as a weapon.)

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

Try stir-frying in a wok with butter.

[LearsFool]

It’s staple for the poor, rice, beans, vegetable oil etc are always in the care packages after a third-world disaster.

Completing the destruction begun by the "Green Revolution", I suppose.

[GeronL]

The eco-nuts stay up at night with the horrible thoughts that the third world might start making more than $2 a day

[jjsheridan5]

It depends on location. Cold pressed oils (peanut oil, coconut oil, olive oil) have been around forever, but the type would obviously depend on location. These are healthy oils (although peanut oil may cause problems), and for poor people without even healthier alternatives (think lard, butter, tallow, goose fat, etc.), these can suffice.

[LearsFool]

Yes indeed. Tropical oils (i.e. coconut, palm) are primarily from poorer regions. Yet American industry has for decades used “aid” to undermine customary diets and self-reliant food supply in these parts of the world.

Better to let these communities consume the healthy food they themselves produce than to get them hooked on the same crap Western nations are. (”But where’s the profit in that?”)