Comments on: Mexicans Torch Tequila Fields for Ethanol Boom Corn

By: Yucca Umtopfen

Yucca Umtopfen — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 09:02:52 +0000

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By: bmulligan

bmulligan — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 01:38:10 +0000

This makes no sense at all to me. The Blue Agave sugar could be used to make the same ethanol that is made from corn. In fact, it’s sugar is more readily available than corn. And since Ethanol at the pump is still $3 a gallon and my tequila costs $40-50/gal, you’d think the Agave is still more profitable. I call shenanegans on this story.

By: SteveO

SteveO — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 04:35:29 +0000

The worst thing about the ethanol scam isn’t that it’s a redistribution of wealth to farmers and ADM. When we wake up from our ethanol hangover in five or 10 years and realize it has made no difference in our dependence on foreign oil, we will have squandered that much more time to find a REAL solution.

By: BubbaRay

BubbaRay — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 04:18:54 +0000

#23, TJGeezer, package the gizmo up (gallium included), and in a short time you’re feeding beer cans and water into the “gas tank”, sort of like the Mr. Fusion in “Back to the Future.” Well, it’s not yet quite that simple, but who knows? It could be.

“This reaction splits the oxygen and hydrogen contained in water, releasing hydrogen in the process. ”

I’m honked that there isn’t a lot of investment money going into this tech right now.

By: jbellies

jbellies — Thu, 31 May 2007 23:13:44 +0000

#19 – based upon the USA reserve for biofuel, the price of corn already did shoot up in Mexico, around 6 months ago, and caused widespread protests and unrest. That happened in Mexico, though, so you wouldn’t have heard about it.

Regarding agave, there was a natural disaster in Mexico about 6 years ago. A frost? Which killed a lot of the agave plants. The price of Tequila has been sky high for 5+ years. It might have been beginning to fall now, were it not for this, ah, market adjustment. The price of agave shot up, so Mexican farmers planted it like crazy (at the same time they were taking cornfields out of production because the international price of US corn was so low). The rest you already know from the article.

Corporate profits are high, people are starving. Cocoa, maize, … it’s an old story. And you don’t see the World Bank suggesting commodity price stability, just the opposite, even though it would cut out a lot of hardship for ordinary people around the world. Corporate profits are highest when the commodity price is based on supply and demand, not upon an intrinsic value of the commodity (an intrinsic value of corn maize for example would be that people can eat it).

I wonder if they are really burning their fields, or harvesting (the manufacture of tequila does involve toasting the agave flesh) the plants. But if the agave price really is rock bottom, then I fear the former.

By: TJGeezer

TJGeezer — Thu, 31 May 2007 21:40:03 +0000

#3 – BubbaRay – That PhysOrg link is fascinating – thanks. I wonder if the relative silence about that, even with the Bushies pushing for hydrogen as a replacement fuel, has to do with the inherently decentralized nature of the technology (no centralized big bucks for our corporate overlords).

I note it requires gallium, which can be cmplicated to handle. Still… it promises to enable internal combustion engines that run on water. Like you, I’d think people would be more excited about it.

By: joshua

joshua — Thu, 31 May 2007 20:39:48 +0000

#5…hhopper….lol….boy does that look familiar. Everytime we go down to the house in Mexico, my older brothers and I do just what your little smily is doing…..then crawl home up the beach.

#21….your right. Corn is a hig maintaince crop…even feed corn requires a lot more water than agave.

By: OmegaMan

OmegaMan — Thu, 31 May 2007 20:18:10 +0000

Good luck going from a desert based low water plant to a high water needs plant…especially with that darned climate change coming….

By: Angel H. Wong

Angel H. Wong — Thu, 31 May 2007 19:31:04 +0000

#14

You can thank that to your farmers subsidized to not grow corn.

By: tallwookie

tallwookie — Thu, 31 May 2007 16:37:57 +0000

The mexicans are gonna get pwned even more when the price of corn skyrockets because of american ethanol interests, and then they wont even have tequila to drink away their sorrows…

oh well, theres always cerveza…

By: TheGlobalWarmer

TheGlobalWarmer — Thu, 31 May 2007 16:09:59 +0000

#9 – Based on taste, I’ve always considered consumer grade Tequila suitable for use a fuel already.

By: ECA

ECA — Thu, 31 May 2007 15:30:11 +0000

16,
Almost right…
Flexfuel cars Loose efficentcy, but PURE alcohol based cars and trucks GAIN and Equal regular cars…
I should add that a little Alcohol in Diesal, adds abit more milage..

By: venom monger

venom monger — Thu, 31 May 2007 15:07:40 +0000

Even so, I’ll be looking at flexfuel vehicles for my next car purchase. The 2.39 E85 price I saw at the pumps the other day makes it tempting.

I wish they sold it around here. My wife’s truck (Nissan Titan) will run on it. Keep in mind, it’s not a money-saver, though. There’s a LOT less energy in alcohol than in gasoline, so if you’ve been getting 20MPG on gas, expect about 12 on ethanol.

By: MikeN

MikeN — Thu, 31 May 2007 14:24:24 +0000

We need to cut down all our forests to plant ethanol in order to comabt global warming.

By: ECA

ECA — Thu, 31 May 2007 13:35:48 +0000

Who knows about the $1.50 per gallon tax on Palm based alcohol Imported from S. American…