Wonder Wheat
You may have been to the supermarket recently and noticed an increase in the price of pasta. One of my college friends once called it the “poor single man’s dinner,” providing a filling meal that was easy to make and easy on the wallet. While still an incredibly inexpensive food and something that can fit into almost any budget, a worldwide wheat shortage has caused a significant increase in price, so much so that Italians had proposed a one-day boycott of the food on September 13th in order to protest the new prices. While the effect, if any, of such a boycott will remain to be seen, the increase itself may regardless be long-term due to another industry requiring copious amounts of wheat and grain for the production of its product: Biofuel.
According to an article by Associated Press writer Colleen Barry in the Boston Globe, “Italians Call for 1-Day Pasta Strike,” US stockpiles of the grain, once in abundant supply, are at their lowest levels in 33years. Italy relies on a major portion of its supply on the US, using it for high-protein durum wheat that is the primary ingredient in pasta. But because wheat is normally so cheap, easy to grow, and abundant, it is also a prime candidate as a renewable fuel source.
Here in the US, wheat has taken a back seat to ethanol fuel that originated as corn. In other countries like Australia, wheat is being investigated not only as a clean-burning renewable fuel, but also as a replacement for other industrial uses where petroleum is currently prevalent. The Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Research Organization (CISCO) began a project where, starting in 2005, $13 million (Australian) is being invested over 4 years to further explore the role of plants in making compounds that can be used instead of petrochemicals for industrial purposes. The main objective of the “Crop Biofactories Initiative” is to discover and develop cost-effective ways to move away from dependence on petrochemicals in order to promote a cleaner, greener future for Australia.
The theory is that plastics, paints and even nylons can eventually be created from chemicals naturally occurring in plants, giving them properties that are more eco-friendly, such as biodegradability. The project in Australia is only in its first stage, which will seek to identify the best plants and associated chemicals that can be used to produce these products. The project will continue after the first phase until 2017, during which these products will be further developed into usable replacements for their petroleum counterparts.
I think initiatives such as the one going on in Australia are great, and I’m willing to pay more for my pasta if it means scientists are using its primary ingredient towards a cleaner earth. As I mentioned in my blog entry, “Environmental Responsibility,” it’s more important to me to promote a cleaner planet for my son than it is to pay more for a staple in my diet. Granted, my son is a big fan of pasta, and I’m sure if he were old enough, he wouldn’t be too pleased to pay more for one of his favorite foods. It’s a small price to pay, however, if it means a cleaner planet for him when he’s older.
What do you think? Do you think the Italians are right to protest against the higher costs of pasta, or do you think the resources are better used to investigate materials that might ensure the longevity of our race on this planet? If not biofuels and other replacements for petrochemicals, what other kinds of compounds should we investigate to replace the fossil fuels we’ve come to depend on over the last 100 years? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
This is a story that will be repeated over and over as biofuels become more popular. Same story for corn…today it is cheap and plentiful. If ethanol goes mainstream, corn, which underlies our entire industrial agricultural system and relies on chemical fertilizers (which require large amounts of petrol to make) to grow such vast quantities, will likewise go up in price–driving up the prices of everything else in the grocery store.
Someday we’re just going to have to stop using so much of everything. Biofuels are, unfortunately, no solution. They just mask the problem for a little while.
It’s not a popular answer, but the only way I see to supply the energy levels we are consuming today, without relying on oil, gas, or coal, is via nuclear power. Assitionally, wind, solar, and geothermal could pick up a big chunk in certain geographic areas. Ideally, we should be implementing these sorts of energies aggressively in the regions where they make sense, reducing emissions in the near term and staving off true shortages.
JM2C