As I perused through Google News, a headline comparing hamburgers to Hummers jumped out at me. This caught my interest not only because it involved food, but it also connected food to our current fuel-economy situation. Then, I even realized that food has been involved in food production for a while.
The main point of the hamburgers and Hummers article was that hamburger, and most other meats, are extremely inefficient. Basically, you're better off grabbing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The article explains that beef is responsible for 78 percent of emissions from meat though it only comprises 30 percent of meat consumption.
Seems kind of ridiculous, doesn't it? Who knew something we eat a few times every week could be so hazardous to our Earth? If you think about it, cows are extremely wasteful animals. Their food costs a lot, and the end result doesn't quite seem to make up the difference - not to mention the nasty methane they release everyday.
Other animals are not off the hook, either. The same article that started this whole discussion revealed that beef produces four times more carbon emissions than pork, and ten times more than poultry. So by cutting out a little meat from our diets every week, we'll not only be saving money (hey, meat is expensive), we'll be saving the world.
So this whole meat-to-wasted energy aspect got me thinking about how other food is used in our current fuel situation. Different foods have been used as agents to produce fuel and all fall under the collective umbrella-term: biofuels. These biofuels are currently in their first generation"" phase, which includes fuel made from corn, sugar cane and other foods we grow and cultivate.
Scientists are searching for what they are calling ""second generation"" biofuels, which would go a step beyond just using foods we happen to already grow. Ideas being tossed around are seaweed (energy from photosynthesis) and energy from composted items. The biggest problem with switching to these biofuels is that scientists have projected that our technology will not be able to harness their power for at least five or 10 years.
My next thought considered corn-based ethanol. There has been so much talk recently about it, and it's about time someone got the facts straight. Corn has been used in gas production mainly because it releases carbon during production, but the corn recaptures it when growing again. Because corn is a plant, and therefore photosynthetic, it becomes part of its own cycle, which is pretty cool, if you ask me.
One of the main concerns of corn-based ethanol is that it's taking valuable corn away from people who need food more than gasoline. Apparently after Ethanol85 became a hit, the price of corn went up in some areas, forcing some families to cut back on its consumption. Hopefully, this problem does not continue and those scientists harness the science needed for those second generation biofuels.
Even though this column didn't totally focus on different kinds of food, it is important to realize how food impacts our everyday lives'¦ away from our mouths. Search and learn about ethanol, biofuels or even cow ""methane emissions."" You'll be surprised what you'll find out.
