For Vorfkas Only

It’s bad enough. Rice prices is expected to rise 40% or more in the coming months. Terrible, terrible, as if the increased electricity tariff, $5 ERP gantry fees, increased taxi fares, 7% GST, sky high oil prices(and so affect almost everything else) are not enough to choke us all the way to our graves. And you can bet the government’s rebates are surely enough to lessen any impact. That $100(for NSFs) is enough to for me to give my family a modest treat, though.

But seriously, the food shortage is a very threatening issue in the short term, and if left unresolved, will have widespread and profound repercussions affecting the entire human civilization. China, Cambodia, and several states with agriculture-based economy have already put strict quota and even entirely banned food export for the sake of keep their people well fed. Ministers are discussing how to drastically increase food production, even bringing up the talk of another “Green Revolution”. But why exactly is there not enough food for everybody out of the blue, after all these years during which famines were confined only to the handful of warring Africa states and deprived communist North Korea?

Many point fingers at the increased frequency of natural disasters and bad weather, leading to lower output of grain production. Some view globalisation as a culprit, claiming that the lower grain prices put many farmers out of the job. Farmers are moving en mass to the cities to work, like an exodus of the countryside. Some says it’s a natural process, pointing out that as population increases while food production remain stagnant, the balance will tip over the side one day. But one issue, which I believe is too important to be left out, is the usage of existing farmland for cultivating biofuels.

For many years, the low prices of grain caused by globalisation had left many traditional farmers with sizable plots scratching their heads over how to make a decent living. Most were smart enough to adopt to GM grains which have more harvests to survive. In recent years, worries of global warming and demand for a alternative fuel have set about a demand for biofuels. Attracted to a higher profit margin, many farmers slashed down and replaced their crops with sugercanes fields. The sudden switch in the type of crops on a large scale resulted in a simultaneous reduction in food production.

For me, I was seldom on the side of biofuels(though for the sake of getting higher scores, I was singing praises for biofuels to replace fossil fuels in GP essays) on the issue of the best alternative fuels. Biofuels is made from organic material, naturally containing carbon contents which some, if not most will become carbon dioxide, our No.1 enemy in the War Against Global Warming. Replacing a fuel with another which produces somehow less greenhouse gases definitely doesn’t seem entirely right. Going down such a tricky path could only slow down climate change and delay Armageddon, and one day we will still find ourselves living in underground air conditioned caverns under desert continents.

Yeah you can argue that sugarcanes(or whatever funny plants they have) have small carbon footprint because plants undergoes photosynthesis, giving back oxygen and the waste of harvested plants are used as fertilisers or recycled in other means. But come on, today’s biofuels are only used as a mix with conventional fuel, carbon dioxide emission are still relatively high, considering car population is increasing worldwide(especially when economy cars like Tata Nano are been introduced in developing countries). And it is no deny that most biofuels do not have a zero carbon footprint, especially when the products come in the form of alcohols.

A more favourable alternative to such carbon-based fuels will be hybrid technology for automobiles, or even 100% fuel cells-powered vehicles. Energy is tapped through the powerlines, which comes from solar panel farms, wind mills, geothermal plants or even new generation nuclear plants. Yes, I prefer nuclear fuels to anything that produces too much carbon dioxide because someday future scientists will find a way to deal with nuclear waste, which can be stored in earthquake-free mountain ranges meanwhile. But, solar panels will be the best because we do have vast stretches of deserts to build solar farms, and and uses readily-available and cheap energy that will not run out for the next couple billion years. And maybe they can considering designing something like this for the good of mankind and Earth of which we are the guardians.

So why are we sacrificing food for fuels? Why are people starving in third world countries, just to satisfy the need for the wealthy to drive their cars to the malls? Why, when there are better alternatives than converting farmlands and slashing down more forest just to build more slightly “green” fuels? If we wait and procrastinate some more, someday we’ll find the answers came too late. Meanwhile, enjoy your meals.