Chinese motorists are spared the joy of ethanol. In China, corn will continue to be eaten, not driven. China’s state news agency Xinhua reports that agricultural experts decided that it is “too early for China to adopt corn-based ethanol fuel to feed automobiles, given the expensive production costs and the country’s large population.” The short version is: “Ethanol? Bu yao!” (No want.)
Li Xinhua, a professor at Shenyang Agricultural University, said that massive production of corn ethanol could threaten China’s food security.
“I think the time for massive production of corn ethanol will only arrive when China’s corn output doubles,” he said. Translation: When hell freezes over.
China is feeling a triple whammy of floods, drought, and arable land eaten up by urban sprawl. China needs to keep the price of corn down to feed people, not cars.
A few weeks ago, petroleum refiners asked to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s top economic planner, to halt any corn-to-ethanol projects.
Zhang Yafei, an analyst with Cinda Securities Co., said to produce one tonne of ethanol fuel will consume nearly three tonnes of corns at a cost of at least 8,000 yuan ($1,176), while 93 grade gasoline sells for 7,750 yuan ($1,140) per tonne on the market. Chinese know their math.
China can do a study that comes up with the right solution, and we can’t? How did we get to the point where we allow ethanol lobbyists to raise the price of food?
It’s what you get when you let business get cozy with government. There’s a word for such a system, by the way
The Corn-Cob-Mafia?
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Food-or-Fuel is a big political thing in the Third World. Part of the problem is that since ethanol distillers pay more, even if you still grow enough corn to feed everyone and meet ethanol targets, the price of food corn goes up simply because you need to give corn growers a reason to sell their corn to markets. You need to give them a reason because otherwise, they’ll grow cheaper (read: less palatable) corn and sell higher to the distillers.
When I was in Environmental studies class, we did math problems to calculate how much land was needed to raise enough corn to replace a given amount of oil derived energy. Turned out, Ethanol was WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too inneficient to ever replace oil.
China doesn’t have enough land to exclusively grow corn for ethanol. They need their land to stave off starvation of a number of countries they give food too, including themselves.
Corn should never be used to make Ethanol. The only reason we do it in the USA is the corn lobby is really really strong.
Corn is just about the least efficient way to make ethanol. But don’t blame ethanol that the US corn lobby wants to make it from corn. Ethanol can be made lots of efficient ways. Although there is some debate whether we should be using bio butanol instead of ethanol – as butanol can be shipped, pumped, and stored in normal equipment – unlike ethanol…
But my point is – don’t think ethanol is bad. Ethanol is good – CORN ethanol is bad.
Cellulosic ethanol and algal biodiesel are the future of biofuels.
I wish we had a non-partisan and very powerful, common sense lobby.
Hey! O’Bama is from the midwest. They grow corn there! Iowa is RIGHT NEXT to Illinois!
Must be his fault.
;)
Do not want!
+1 ethanol is awful.
Based on a two-week tour of the country four years ago, I can authoritatively state that Chinese eat rice, not corn, not even tasty Fritos. I’d imagine China has a rice-farmer lobby to go along with their historical/cultural preference. Corn’s probably a less thirsty crop in terms of required rainfall or irrigation. And boy, wouldn’t Monsanto like to get the Chinese to use their genetically modified seed corn that only responds to Monsanto-brand pesticides and fertilizers?
Were you here in spring/summer? Gaggles of people gnawing on corn cobs. If you get back, don’t bother trying the corn, it tastes like dirt. Fritos are available, but expensive; the locals are more down with the blueberry-flavored Lay’s (gag).
Corn-cob Mafia.
LOL, that’s good! Because it’s true.
Proof once more that the USA has the best government money can buy. Unfortunately it’s the taxpayers who get stuck with the big bills.
Westerners tend to think of Chinese as a bunch of hicks who don’t know any better. Apparently they can add and the math behind what it takes to run corn in a car doesn’t add up on an abacus. They are often better capitalists than we are.
Maybe it’s because they don’t have a corn lobby. It’s been said you make ethanol by mixing corn with tax dollars.
Let’s turn off the tap and see of home grown fuel can stand on it’s own for a change.
China doesn’t eat as much corn… but they still eat it… and they use corn as feed for their animals.
In this sense, you can use corn ethanol… extract the ethanol and sell the corn as feed. But they don’t have enough land and farmers to meet demand. And again, the only way of convincing the rest of the farmers to keep feeding people is to raise food prices… even if technically, food prices shouldn’t be affected and there’s enough land to do both.
stationwagon
I wish we had a non-partisan and very powerful, common sense lobby.
I’ll vote for that.