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| John, I don't know how much cooking oil is used in a month. But don't forget that in America most of our food is fully processed, prepared, and delivered and that is where most of our food cost comes from. So we wind up with the 2 cents of wheat in 99 cents of bread loaf argument. However, for much of the world, that bottle of cooking oil is a key portion of their total calorie intake, and doubling it's cost is a significant additional expense, not just something to complain about when we head to the corner grocery store. I would assume that if 7% of the worlds cooking oil is used for biodiesel, maybe 2-5% is used for industrial applications like soy ink, but the vast majority, am guessing 80-90% is consumed as "food".
I think it is too easy to write off the food vs. fuel debate as "improper government, not lack of food, causes people to starve" The reality is a little different, for much of the worlds population food represents a signifcant portion of their monthly expenses and hard to "cut back" easily by eating out less or eating less processed food as most American's could do.
I fully agree with our thoughts on alternate energy and investing in options, but I have come to the conclusion that the huge subsidies and mandates for biofuels from crops is a big mistake in a number of ways. My response below on the cat litter issue is one example of why...
Interestingly, at the moment, the biodiesel industry recieves a $1.00 per gallon direct subsidy, and the price of soybean oil compared to deisel fuel puts their operating margin at negative 50 cents a gallon or more even AFTER collecting the subsidy. In other words, the industry is hurting severly. So how have subsidies helped? And what should we do about it? The market is obviously unwilling at present to allow much soyoil to go to diesel fuel, believing it has more valuable uses, why argue with that?
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Food vs. Fuel debate is real...
