Very interesting article over at the guardian.co.uk about the global food price crisis and how one of the factors causing it is the switch from food crops to biofuel crops.

tens of thousands of farmers have switched from food to fuel production to reduce US dependence on foreign oil. Spurred by generous subsidies and an EU commitment to increase the use of biofuels to counter climate change, at least 8m hectares (20m acres) of maize, wheat, soya and other crops which once provided animal feed and food have been taken out of production in the US.

In addition, large areas of Brazil, Argentina, Canada and eastern Europe are diverting sugar cane, palm oil and soybean crops to biofuels. The result, exacerbated by energy price rises, speculation and shortages because of severe weather, has been big increases of all global food commodity prices.

Cameroon At least 24 people killed and 1,600 people arrested in February. Taxes slashed on food imports and public sector wages increased by 15%.

Indonesia 10,000 demonstrated outside the presidential palace in Jakarta after soya bean prices rose more than 50% in a month and more than 125% over the past year.

Egypt Seven people have died in fights or of exhaustion queuing for subsidised bread. Dairy products are up 20%, oil 40%.

Burkina Faso Riots in three towns after the government promised to control the price of food but failed.

Guinea Five anti-government riots over cost of living in past 18 months.

Pakistan Thousands of troops have been deployed to guard trucks carrying wheat and flour. [Read More]

Here’s some alternative biofuels to consider; these Arizona groups make biodiesel from waste vegetable oil.

AZ BioDiesel

Amereco BioFuels Corp

Desert BioFuels

Dynomite BioFuels Co-Op

Grecycle

Related Post: Biowar I: Why Battles over Food and Fuel Lead to World Hunger

If you’ve been to ASU’s main campus you’ve probably seen all the trees full of fruit and maybe assumed the school was using it in it’s cafeterias around campus. I guess not because I just ran across an article saying that some student groups have begun harvesting the fruit to be used around campus. I think it’s great that they are doing this and I hope it’s something that sticks. It makes sense that you’d use the fruit that growing right here. There is a good variety of trees there, navel, Seville and blood oranges, cumquats, limequats, lemons and pecans which are all organic. Thanks to the student group VegAware for doing all the hard work to make this happen!

Here’s the article about it at eCollege Times

Mark Edwards, PhD, Arizona State University

Burning 100 million tons of our primary food for fuel is unsustainable and wastes non-renewable resources, especially water. Growing massive amounts of corn represents ecological suicide as it drains trillions of gallons of non-replenishable groundwater, spikes food and fuel prices, decimates food exports and threatens millions with starvation from a food cascade.

Biowar I inflicts costs, casualties and catastrophe in a magnitude far greater than a conventional war. Taxpayers are forced to pay $43 B annually to subsidize erosion and pollution of our air and water for a tiny, 2.4%, replacement of foreign oil. America has insufficient disposable cropland, water or energy to waste on a policy that fails its objectives.

Compared with biofuel alternatives:

• Corn requires more water, land, fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides

• Severely pollutes air, soils, rivers, lakes and well-water

• Degrades and erodes soils at the rate of 6 tons per acre

• Grows slowly and produces a low energy biomass yield, 3%

Corn ethanol is not sustainable. It consumes too much water, land, fertilizer and energy. The direct and indirect costs of the ethanol industry are neither sustainable nor sensible for farmers, consumers, taxpayers or food support recipients.

Biowar І offers sustainable alternative to corn ethanol, algae which does not compete for food cropland, uses 0.001 as much water and creates an ecologically positive footprint. Algae is over 30 times more productive than corn and can be made into higher value products such as jet fuel and green diesel. The coproducts from algae, proteins and carbohydrates, may have more value for food, medicines, animal feed and low energy input fertilizers than the oils used for making jet fuel. See more about Biowar І at www.biowar1.com .

• Biowar I Summary and FAQ

Nature’s Express is a new restaurant that recently opened in Yuma that focuses on fast healthy food. They advertise that the food is 100% plant-based and when we asked the cashier she said everything is vegan. On top of that all their packaging and cutlery is biodegradable, they recycle their cooking oil and use it as biofuel, they source much of their food locally, and buy as much organic as they can. According to their website the restaurant was started by a local oncologist and his wife who were interested in offering the community a healthy alternative from the usual fast food.

While in Yuma this weekend we sampled their menu and loved everything we tried. If you like chili cheese burgers I’d recommend their’s. It had plenty of chili and really captured the essence of the real thing. My wife tried the Reuben which said said was great as well. We also shared a large order of sweet potato fries which were quite tasty. I would have called them chips even though they weren’t that crispy. For desert we had carrot cake, this cake is great, it’s so delicious and moist! I highly recommend it.

So for anyone in Yuma you must go check this place out and for all those from the rest of Arizona you must stop here for lunch on your way in and out of San Diego.

Nature’s Express

www.natures-express.com

2905 4^th Avenue Yuma, AZ 85364

T: 928.317.8300 F: 928.317.8304

Dining room open: 10am—9pm Daily

Drive-thru open: Mon—Fri: 7am—10pm Sat & Sun: 10am—10pm