NPR reports that
Tyson developed a diesel fuel made from chicken fat and food grease. It’s opening a plant Monday in Louisiana that can turn out 75 million gallons of the fatty fuel a year.
At the same time, they’re calling the federal government’s subsidies on ethanol… well, chicken.
It’s possible that a few of you are not intimately acquainted with the activites undertaken by the National Chicken Council, but surely that unwarranted ignorance stopped when the NCC spoke out on E15:
“Rising grain prices driven by the voracious demand for feedstock from the heavily subsidized ethanol industry caused an increase of six percent in the retail price of fresh whole broiler chickens from 2008 to 2010,” said George Watts, president of the National Chicken Council. “Channeling even more corn into ethanol will, in time, only drive up the cost of chicken even more. Consumers will end up paying for the ethanol industry’s demands. It is time to put an end to interference in the market and government mandates that benefit the ethanol industry and raise the price of corn.”
Is the NCC’s principled opposition to ethanol in our fuel based simply on food price, or are its members squawking a bit for the purpose of attracting similar subsidies to what could be a rather profitable biodiesel business? Even a birdbrain could answer that question.
I bet the exhaust makes regular diesel exhaust seem like perfume.
Probably smells like a KFC.
A friend of mine in the UK runs his diesel Landrover on vegetable oil – it smells like a fish and chip shop. Lovely!
I.
Hate.
Subsidies!
I hate any government incentive, helping select industries over another.
This picking and chosing favorites is wrong! Wrong! Wrong!
There will never be justice in this country while this is allowed.
Thanks for starting my week off with heartburn.
If you were a third worlder – or even a second worlder – in the 20th century, the most important American of the century was Dr. Norman Borlaug, who was a leader of the Green Revolution. His Nobel Peace Prize stands as counterpoint to Gore’s – awarded for BS – or Obama’s – awarded for … nothing at all.
I don’t have any quotes of his regarding ethanol subsidies, but I’d guess that he would disapprove.
The anti-American propaganda writes itself – fat Americans in their fat SUVs are taking food from the hungry. True or not at this exact moment in time, depending on the vagaries of the climate cycle, it could be true in short order. (Actually, for the first time in history, in the US at least, poor people are the ones who are fat, not the prosperous.)
Plus, it is a stupid mis-allocation of government money, money we don’t have. Let’s see if these newly minted TP representatives have the spine to shut it down by targeted defunding. The H of R wields the checkbook, not the Senate or the President.
I agree: no subsidies.
if they want moreethanol in fuel, they should increase the gas tax.
Why are we paying out money in subsidies so that we have to pay more for the subsidized commodity? Stop double taxing me, and just tax me once with a raised gas tax. Pol’s should grow spines and make good policy instead of populist policy.
Pol’s should grow spines and make good policy instead of populist policy.
I hear ya. So many of our problems could be solved with term limits for congressmen/senators. That would (hopefully) allow politicians to do what’s best for the country rather than get caught up in a perpetual cycle of lining up votes for the never ending next elections. But nobody in congress will vote to limit their own terms. Too much power and personal wealth involved. OK, back to cars.
If only it were that easy. We have term limits for state legislators in CA and it only encourages special interests and companies to spend more money on the election of exactly those individuals who will do their bidding.
I agree: no subsidies.
This includes oil and defense, too, right?
I agree with psarhjinian. Everyone seems to be against subsidies until it supports something they like.
Read My Lips…no subsidies.
I am not sure what is meant by oil and defense.
Defense is a/main obligation of the government and was devised as so from the beginning.
If you mean for development of a weapon at the request of the government, that again is a different thing. Keeping your weapon development internal is extremely important. You do not want your defense based upon foreign production and control.
THIS is completely different from investment/direction/maniputation in and of consumer purchasing.
Oil subsidies?
I would like a good example of these.
There should be no aid in oil exploration since it is a profit driven business…and pretty much multi-national.
dewfish
This is like being against those against sin because everybody commits sin.
Or to be OK with lying because everybody lies.
There’s pork, then there is PORK.
The good ‘ol USA has reaped the benefits of having the hippies ascending to positions of power. They played on their fathers’ dimes with no concept of reality. I served in the USAF not far from the Bay Area back then and saw a microcosm of this first hand, and extremely thankful I partook of none of it, thanks to my upbringing.
I do feel that certain projects are in order for government backing, as that’s how, aside from the university level, discovery through research is accomplished. Subsidies are a thorny issue but no one should expect or deserve a “cradle-to-grave”, no-fault society.
You’d think all the biggest chicken producers would have moved away from grain-based chicken feed and replaced it with chicken-based chicken feed…
In all seriousness, if chicken fat diesel is indeed a viable fuel, Tyson and other NCC members should convert their machinery and fleets to its use; making them more self-sufficient.
Also in all seriousness, animal-based animal feed is a great way to encourage the likes of CJD, Scrapie and Mad Cow.
On the other hand, animal based animal feed helps discourage atrocities like scrapple.
“…Soylent Green is people!…”
You folks do realize that this post was ostensibly about chicken fat and food grease being converted to biodiesel? By products that are otherwise put in a landfill, or in the case of cooking oils, are handled as hazardous waste? Why not turn it into fuel, it makes more sense to me than putting it in a landfill. Conservation and recycling are the ‘low-hanging fruit’ of energy efficiency.
The increase in price of chicken in the 2008 to 2010 time period tracks the rise in transportation fuel pricing. We are still feeling the effects of the bubble in petroleum prices from 2008. Additionally, if we (as a country) were to stop eating so much meat, the savings in water, grain for feed, fuel & etc. would be substantial. It’s a vicious circle, more consumption, more resources to supply the consumption. But, I like meat, so I’m not really helping…
No subsidies? Stop using regular gasoline as a motor fuel. It too is subsidized in so many ways. There are a number of things we shouldn’t buy in that case, because they are subsidized. If you really stuck to that mantra, your life would be considerably different than it is now.
Living in a state that has term limits proves that it’s no help at all. These folks still spend their time politicking, and seem to be equally ineffective in their ‘lame duck’ time. We’re screwed.
If I understand the issue correctly, conversion of soybeans to methyl-ester biodiesel gets a big government subsidy to buy votes in Midwestern swing states. Meat producers and oil refiners in politically non-competitive states like Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas came up with a way to convert animal fat into real hydrocarbon diesel. Their complaint is plant based biodiesel gets a bigger subsidy than animal based diesel. If the goal was to reduce dependence on petroleum, the meat producers have a legitimate point. However, the real reason soybeans get the subsidy and chicken doesn’t is Iowa gets first shot at narrowing the field of Presidential candidates.
http://www.etrucker.com/apps/news/article.asp?id=59491
When oil prices skyrocketed a few years back, and commodity prices headed up as well, Piedmont Biofuels made our local bio-diesel with poultry fat from area processing plants. Made great bio-diesel with the only problem being that it had a higher gel point than vegetable-fat-based BD. Ran beautifully in my TDI.
Trailertrash – it is well known that Defence companies are subsidied (Boeing for instance) and oil companies get massive handouts.
As for the stupid comment earlier that it is the poor people who are now fat. Being fat doesn`t mean you eat well or are well fed. I can show you pictures of children suffering from malnutrition who have stomach’s the stick out.
Poor people are fat partly because cheap food is chock-full of simple carbohydrates, partly because fitness is not easy to indulge in when you have little time and less money, and time is very much a precious commodity when you’re not well-to-do.
For an example, take note of all the yoga-toned hard-bodies** who frequent Whole Foods and it’s ilk, or look at the kinds of cars in the parking lots at most gyms.
** At least two times a month I meet a few customers and colleagues in Oakville (where I am now). Because I hate driving in gridlock, I take the train there and meet them at the Whole Foods parking lot. There are some very, very attractive women (and few men, but not many), all driving the Oakville “kept woman” vehicle of choice (generally, the ML-Class, but you see a few X5s and RXs). Compare this with the No Frills I shop at: you can tell who spends three hours a day at the gym and has a nanny, and who works eight hours a day and has to get dinner ready when they get home
Would either of you prefer to starve or to be fat even if the latter is based on a less than optimal diet? How many fat poor people would willingly chose starvation? Doesn’t that question answer itself? Human appetite is hard wired on what we’ve had for millenia, feast or famine. Should we hope that cheap food becomes better food? Sure, and it is possible to eat a decent meal at McKing burger joints. Will you be the nannies telling people that they MUST eat what you want them to? Not on my tax dime, thanks. You could, however, suggest to teachers that they spend a little less time on climate change, recycling and their favorite politicians and a little more time on what used to be called home economics.
Stomachs that stick out may or may not have anything to do with gross caloric intake. Those pictures you can show me, I’ve seen. They are rare in the US and when taken in Africa usually are coupled to lack of transportation infrastructure or corruption or are a result of a deliberate warfare strategy. In the US the only explanation is none of those – it’s child neglect and ignorance.
Will you be the nannies telling people that they MUST eat what you want them to?
We already do, in a way. We spent a lot of money developing a carb-laden RDA% and continue to spend lot of money subsidizing corn and wheat to such a degree that it’s cheap to make and, importantly, cheap to buy the kind of food that encourages obesity and diabetes.
Considering your dime is already being worked paying for the results of these problems, perhaps spending it on prevention instead of cure might be wise?
You could, however, suggest to teachers that they spend a little less time on climate change, recycling and their favorite politicians and a little more time on what used to be called home economics.
Cooking is not hard. Having the time and money to cook well is relatively difficult. The rich eat better than the poor because they have the education, time and money to do so.
I always use the bread and pasta sauce example. If I want to make bread or pasta sauce that doesn’t have sugar in it, I have to (for bread) buy all the ingredients and hand around the house making it, waiting for it to rise, baking it and so forth. For pasta sauce I have to buy a pile of tomatoes and reduce them for hours. All this takes time: time that a single mother or poor working family doesn’t have, but a rich family with hired help and/or only one working parent certainly can.
No, go to the store and look at how much stuff has added sugars or corn starches: everything from breakfast cereal to bread to sauces to meats. Everything. Unless you spend a lot of money and/or time, you can’t get away from it.
It’s not as simple as teaching home economics.
Stomachs that stick out may or may not have anything to do with gross caloric intake. Those pictures you can show me, I’ve seen They are rare in the US and when taken in Africa usually are coupled to lack of transportation infrastructure or corruption or are a result of a deliberate warfare strategy.
That condition has to do with malnutrition. It comes from not getting enough protein, and is the result of a fluid retention and liver damage. You get it from eating nothing but nutritionally void food (eg, white rice) when you do eat at all. It’s very hard to get it North America unless you are desperately poor and very isolated.
My tax dime is already being used on various farm subsidies. The way it works is those subsidies would remain while another tax dime is taken to hire people to hector us all not to consume the products produced by those subsidies. Its not rational, its government!
I’m all in favor of removing production subsidies. My father-in-law claimed he would have made more money as a farmer if the dopes had gone out of business as a consequence of their own bad decisions. He was right.
No way I’m jumping in the foodie briar patch. WebMD has a list of nutritious cheap food, not as easy and quick as nuking prepared food. BTW, at dinner, I checked the pasta sauce in the pantry – two with no sugar or catchall natural flavors, one with sugar and my daughter’s organic sauce with dehydrated cane juice (really, and she may have paid extra for that circumlocution).
Back to the topic, it isn’t prudent to assume that we’ll always have the capacity to feed ourselves and others while increasingly diverting food to fuel. Diverting chicken fat from landfill to diesel, sure. Corn-gaso-hol, soybean-o-diesel, no. Borlaug and others bought humanity a half century without Erlich’s famines occurring, but another similar period of time isn’t guaranteed.
Oh, I can’t wait for the PETA wing of the greenwashers to get ahold of this innovation! I can hear it now “how many chickens had to die for you to drive the work this morning?” Oh, the humanity,… er poultry. whatever.