Food for fuel debate

[TASFarms]

With China stopping exports of phosphorus fertilizer, what happens if they don’t export again? Looks like phos will be in high demand for electric vehicles batteries. Is this another way that they are going to make farms use 30% less fertilizer? When corn, canola, soybeans are use for fuel there is still part of the product that is used to feed animals. The phos that goes into car batteries really could really cut production of grains

[chuckChuck]

What about biofuels? A huge amount of corn is going into ethanol. If you are concerned about food shortages and food for fuel why wouldn't you have brought this issue up a decade ago?

And batteries will evolve and the technology to use other materials is being developed.

We have known about potential long term issues with P supplies for quite a while before EV batteries.

We should be concerned about all types of resource depletion.

[Blaithin]

I’m sure the issue was brought up a decade and more ago. Ethanol cutting into food was one of the first detractors for biofuel.

Doubt it will make a feed shortage per say. More complicated than that. It will drive the cost of feed up. If a feeder needs grain, they need to be willing to pay competitive prices against the biofuel companies. There won’t be a feed shortage because the cost of feeding animals vs their return would lower the amounts of farms feeding them.

[furrowtickler]

When they want to slash fertilizer use , they are not concerned about food .
At least there is by products from bio fuels for the livestock industry to help add to feedstock here in North America. If grain and oilseeds get shipped over seas , that’s gone

[TOM4CWB]

I’m sure the issue was brought up a decade and more ago. Ethanol cutting into food was one of the first detractors for biofuel.

Doubt it will make a feed shortage per say. More complicated than that. It will drive the cost of feed up. If a feeder needs grain, they need to be willing to pay competitive prices against the biofuel companies. There won’t be a feed shortage because the cost of feeding animals vs their return would lower the amounts of farms feeding them.

Biofuels supply a large amount of feed for livestock, Soymeal, Distillers grains, the impact is huge on the net carbon emissions decrease... carbon fixed into soils... C02 removed during growth of grains each year... a net benefit to the global ecosystem. Electric Vehicles are carbon net contributors at this stage of development... Electrical grid loss through inefficiencies and line loss, battery C02 emissions, C02 emissions of coal, Nat Gas, and other carbon contributions to our ecosystems [duriing generation of electricity] also from 'renewable energy' that simply uses the sun and wind in a different manner than plants!

Cheers