Comments on: Biofuel or Biofood http://wildwildweather.com/forecastblog/2008/07/biofuel-or-biofood/ Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:06:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: sue http://wildwildweather.com/forecastblog/2008/07/biofuel-or-biofood/#comment-2 sue Sat, 12 Jul 2008 19:37:44 +0000 http://wildwildweather.com/forecastblog/?p=53#comment-2 Dan, thanks for the great link to the UMass Lignocellulosic biofuels conference. I will check back for the resources page when they get that up and running. About a year ago, a friend of mine (a Ph.D. chemist) was telling me a little bit about some of this work in general terms, and I'd planned to sit down with him and get more references on the topic. Unfortunately he died in a car crash a few months later, and I never got back to the topic. So I really appreciate your post and the link. Just another thought, on the problems of conventional crops for biofuels (whether it be corn, sugar cane or palm oil) -- not only does converting grassland and natural forest land into crop land release more carbon, but it turns complex ecosystems that provide many other biosphere functions (water control and filtering among others) into monocrop lands that don't provide the same functions. Sue Dan, thanks for the great link to the UMass Lignocellulosic biofuels conference. I will check back for the resources page when they get that up and running. About a year ago, a friend of mine (a Ph.D. chemist) was telling me a little bit about some of this work in general terms, and I’d planned to sit down with him and get more references on the topic. Unfortunately he died in a car crash a few months later, and I never got back to the topic. So I really appreciate your post and the link.

Just another thought, on the problems of conventional crops for biofuels (whether it be corn, sugar cane or palm oil) — not only does converting grassland and natural forest land into crop land release more carbon, but it turns complex ecosystems that provide many other biosphere functions (water control and filtering among others) into monocrop lands that don’t provide the same functions.
Sue

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