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Old 11-07-2007, 06:25 PM  
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One of the NEGATIVE impacts of the rise of biofuels is its impact on farmland that's to be otherwised used for food. This is already happening in the USA where corn and grain prices are skyrocketing because more and more corn is being diverted for ethanol instead of food. Moreover, land that was normally used for other grains is being converted for ethanol-dedicated corn.

The article does address this--it argues that higher grain prices will lead to less agricultural subsidies and lead to more open markets for grain.

I think the solution lies in using NONFOOD organisms like bacteria to convert WASTE into biofuel. Although this is happening with biogas, it lacks scale and cost-effficiency. I'm thinking maybe fatty bacteria being fed sewage waste to produce gasoline. See http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/19128/
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