Wow Sitting Duck posted without reading...

But was right on the money on my curbing population growth thread created earlier

But, back on topic. Food wastage is a huge problem the world over. I don't know about anyone else, but I was told as a kid "eat everything on your plate, there are starving kids in Africa", but regardless of whether I ate the food or not, I was already full and the extra food was just unnecessary. Now, by buying excess supplies of food, and wasting it as scraps or forcing yourself to eat it in order to not waste it, still consumes more than was necessary on the global pool of foods and this begins to affect global prices (but there are more factors, which I am sure someone will mention government subsidies in order to crash global food prices, etc). I agree with you Flint that there is no need to expand the current production of food in the world, but more effective ways of delivering food (as to reduce the chance of goods perishing) and a more efficient spending habits (to buy only what is needed).

Also, on the note of using corn to provide ethenol, if this reduces carbon emissions, I am all for it (and before anyone even TRIES to bring up the debate of climate change, I don't necessarily mean to prevent that, but more to keep air a little cleaner...I am an asthmatic living in China, it's not comfortable to be breathing the air on some days...air pollution is bad!!!). You are also very quick to defend people's rights to make profits, but now use people making money off corn as biofuel as an example that is creating problems...pick an angle and stick with it!

"We do not need to turn yards into family farms"

Also as far as turning the yard into the family farm, my house in Australia is basically one big vege/fruit patch, with chickens that provide eggs, and soon we are going to add a small fish farm. We could have kept it as grass, and maybe some pretty flowers, but by turning it into a way of supplementing our purchased goods, we consume less of the global pool of goods and also haven't lost anything that was important.

Just my 2 cents...not sure how on topic it was...

Fair enough...

That being said, I hope you realize statements like the above can much easier distract people away from the real debate (and the idea you're trying to convey), instead discussing a strawman argument neither person intended, pretty much wasting everyone's time... In the future, if you have an argument... perhaps you should just say it. 

Not to mention, Justinian, that even if we say that ethanol is the preferred fuel choice, it doesn't require the use of corn.  Brazil's ethanol is produced using sugar (a crop the US definitely produces... we support it all to death here)... I'm also aware of biofuels made from soy and hemp (although hemp obviously has its own can of worms to open)... and I seem to recall a type of grass that could be used for biofuels...

> Zarf BeebleBrix wrote:

> Not to mention, Justinian, that even if we say that ethanol is the preferred fuel choice, it doesn't require the use of corn.  Brazil's ethanol is produced using sugar (a crop the US definitely produces... we support it all to death here)... I'm also aware of biofuels made from soy and hemp (although hemp obviously has its own can of worms to open)... and I seem to recall a type of grass that could be used for biofuels...

Also I heard algae can be used to make Biofuels, the US military was looking to invest in biofuels made from algae for its Navy...

"In a world with growing population stress, using corn to produce ethanol take land out of food production."

And on that note, see my other portion about food wastage. There is a current need to produce at full capacity if people bought food reasonably.

"Zarf, not everyone wants or cares to debate the way you do. Freedom of expression is a given right yes?"

THERE IS NO FEAR...I mean THERE IS NO FREEDOMS IN THIS DOJO!

And if you want to go down this avenue, then Zarf has the same right to express his dislike of your debate methods...

That was very artificial of you Zarf

Negative!

Because he lacks the intelligence and can only troll.

He got caught as a mod by a very respected fmod throwing a personal insult.

In the food thread he did not read a thing. Nothing at all. Or he would have seen I do not deny that individuals starve all the time, but I challenge the notion that there is not enough food grown to feed the world and even a sudden growth of 15% in population can be handled.

He lacks, probably due to birth issues (fetal alcohol syndrome I suspect) to read and then debate.

Or if he did have a normal brain he would apologize, make note of his error in presumption, and move on.

But a brain dead liberal can never admit error. They would commit suicide first if there was not that messy death part.

Only when everyone unites against the person do they admit fault in a vain hope to reset things. Only then it is to late.