Cynic Root

Oil and food used to be separate parts of the economy (to the extent which oil was used to drive food around).

Biodiesel seems to have coupled these two parts of the economy: as the price of oil sours, it becomes economical to take food and make gas out of it (though I don’t know how much of our food can be directly produced from oil. Other than licorice, which I always thought tasted like crude oil).

It turns out that we aren’t that flexible with our oil consumption so we are willing to pay just about any price oil producers think of. But it also turns out that some people would rather starve than pay this much for oil. Or rather, couldn’t pay this much for oil. Or rather couldn’t pay that much for the equivalent of oil, which is food that has become more expensive.

So, the price of oil raises, and we all prevent people from affording food.

Is biodiesel meant to reduce oil consumption by reducing the world’s population (by means of starvation)?

I hope that public transportation and electrical powered cars (using regenerative / nuclear-produced electricity) come back in fashion.