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| Fuel | 39% | 127 votes | Total: 324 votes | |
| Food | 61% | 197 votes |
Fuel
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Add to FavoritesThe answer to this question is so deceptively simple that most people will likely overlook it. Today's oil dependent economies are a clear example of how an increase in fuel prices can have a dramatic effect on the cost of everything else, especially food. Nothing is grown, raised or produced without the use of fuel at some level. Processing and transport of food requires some type of fuel. Even the acquisition by the end consumers of food and goods requires some type of fuel. Fuel is what makes the world go round, and fuel is what regulates the cost of our lives more than anything else.
Developing affordable alternative fuels is the way to economic freedom. The world is married to fossil fuels for everything from providing electrical power, to tilling the fields and transporting goods to market. On every conceivable level of production of even a simple crop like grain we use fuel. It could be as indirect as shipping feed to a farm for the cattle that might pull the plow of a lowly farmer, but you can rest assured that every aspect of our lives is tied to fuel. Every increase in the cost of fuel means an increase to the cost of production of everything. For the most part these costs are passed down the production chain as much as economically possible, but ultimately everyone in the chain has to take their share of the burden.
Given the volatile state of the petroleum industry today the costs of fuel fluctuate far too greatly to make even the most radical of businessmen comfortable. One day it cost fifty dollars to fill your tank and tomorrow it might cost sixty dollars. While the increase is perceptibly low, we as the consumer feel the hurt the most. Not only are we paying ten dollars more for our gas, the cost of our produce has now jumped a few cents as the shipping company who delivers it to your local grocery store has passed on part of his cost to you. You grocery store passes on the additional costs associated with their utility bill as a result of the increase in electricity passed on to them by the power company. It's a vicious cycle that we are all trapped in, and one that holds us all for ransom as a small group of well to do oil barrens plays their game of speculation, carefully increasing the cost of fuel enough to make them more money while still being just barely tolerable by the masses.
For too long now the fate of nations have been held in the balance as the ultra wealthy few who control the global economy through their handle on the world's oil play their games and reap their rewards while the masses are made to suffer. In addition to controlling the economic grown and political climate of many nations they also exert their control over any threat to their power. For decades now we've had the technology to replace oil as the main fuel of choice throughout the world. But development of alternative fuel sources has been constantly held back through lack of funding, government regulation and political pressure exerted by fossil fuel lobbyists. Given the rapid advancement of computer technology and other space age technology that we've seen since the 1960's, it's inconceivable to think that our alternative fuel efforts have advanced at such a snail's pace.
The nation and the world as a whole need to focus on alternative fuel sources and need to focus on them today. Not in order to save the environment from the noxious mix of pollution created by fossil fuel burning, but to save us from the greed of the oil controlling entities of the world. While the environmental benefits associated with moving to alternative fuels would be a wonderful benefit, the real threat is from the uncontrolled greed of the few that oppress the many. This is what alternative fuel development will stop. With such selfish practices in check economies around the world will stabilize and be far less volatile than they are today. Stronger economies based on more realistic and renewable energy sources will allow us to then concentrate on more important matters such as providing affordable food for people around the world.
Learn more about this author, Joseph Whalen.
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Food
How can anything be more important than affordable food? Are those arguing the other side of this question thinking that THEY and THEIR FRIENDS can have both alternative fuel and affordable food, while many people they'll never meet go without? That's the way it will be if our political leaders continue subsidizing the use of food crops to produce fuel for our vehicles.
Fortunately , this is not an either/or choice. We can have both affordable food and fuel, theoretically, so long as the fuel is not made from food. But, pray tell - What is it? And will this replacement for petroleum arrive in time to avert massive starvation and economic dislocation?
Part of the problem is that Americans, in particular, have become accustomed to having a very efficient (and cheap!) source of energy for the past 100 years, around which we have built an economy and social patterns that can't be replicated with any of the current prospective replacement fuels. Petroleum is an uniquely powerful source of energy per unit of volume.
The other part of our problem is that, because of the awkward way we have designed our daily lives - i.e. the need to truck much of our food thousands of miles to reach hungry city-dwellers and the habit we have of driving many miles to work and back each day - we have a huge need for energy. Our cars and trucks run on fossil fuels, our electricity and heating needs are powered largely by fossil fuels, and our roads, many building materials, and industrial raw materials are all dependent on petroleum or natural gas by-products.
Now extremely populous countries like China and India want to emulate our love affair with the automobile, so they are speeding the decline of reserves that we all must compete for.
To give you an idea of how much energy it takes to maintain our present American addiction to oil alone, half of the ethanol produced by Brazil would only provide 2% of the U.S. fuel needs.
Further complicating this conundrum is the sad fact that much of the world's population, for one reason or the other, can no longer grow their own food. Their soil may be depleted from centuries of poor cultivation, they have reproduced beyond the carrying capacity of the land, or the majority has moved to the cities to find work other than subsistence farming. It appears the only way much of the world can eat is dependent on the hyper-productivity permitted by the liberal use of oil and natural gas-based fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides. Without these magic substances, it is questionable whether one or more billion people in the developing world can survive.
From a casual reading of the daily news, it seems much of the Third World manages to survive on donations of food, which is only made possible by affordable fossil-fueled agriculture.
To get back to the original question, which is a deceptive one, humans can't live without food. They CAN live without alternative fuels, although there will be a very difficult transition as we move from oil to whatever comes next. And that is assuming there is a roughly equivalent replacement for oil (which hasn't been revealed to us yet).
Many citizens of the Third World have already been priced out of the use of oil. Some are now being needlessly priced out of the market for simple food staples, thanks to our government's decision to subsidize ethanol production by U.S. farmers, even though it is a losing investment of energy.
We should keep in mind that humanity got by passably well before it harnessed oil as its energy source. The Amish, for example, live a comfortable and productive way of life. Their society is completely fueled by solar energy, from which they derive food to produce human labor and horsepower.
Given time and the inclination to try, people can arrange their lives more efficiently to get by comfortably with less. Whether the majority will choose to adjust to a simpler lifestyle is doubtful. If no one comes up with a workable replacement for oil soon, we may all witness a period of compulsory downgrading of our Western standard of living, punctuated by resource wars and hunger like nothing we've seen before.
Food is more important than alternative fuels, but are we wise enough to realize that and plan accordingly?
Learn more about this author, Paul Kemp.
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