#26 Food for Oil: The Greening of America

There was a time when, if you would talk about reducing oil consumption, you would be branded a leftist, tree-hugging liberal. These days, reducing energy consumption is slowly coming to be seen as the patriotic duty of every American. Even President Bush seems to have awakened from his comatose anti-environmentalism when, in his recent State of the Union Address, he said

"We must continue changing the way America generates electric power, by even greater use of clean coal technology, solar and wind energy, and clean, safe nuclear power. We need to press on with battery research for plug-in and hybrid vehicles, and expand the use of clean diesel vehicles and biodiesel fuel. We must continue investing in new methods of producing ethanol, using everything from wood chips to grasses, to agricultural wastes...let us build on the work we've done and reduce gasoline usage in the United States by 20 percent in the next 10 years...America is on the verge of technological breakthroughs that will enable us to live our lives less dependent on oil. And these technologies will help us be better stewards of the environment, and they will help us to confront the serious challenge of global climate change."

The drive for oil independence is not a new one; those who are old enough may remember the oil crises of the 1970's. Back then President Nixon was singing the same tune as Bush when he called for drastic measures to curb America's addiction to foreign oil. Sadly for the Unites States, Nixon's big words never amounted to anything. The same story risks unfolding once again, unless the US undergoes a fundamental political and cultural shift.

America consumes upwards of 50 million barrels of oil per day. Reducing this number does not only require fundamental technological innovation and implementation, but also a whole new cultural mindset. Bioethanol is heralded as the new miracle drug capable of curbing America's addition to foreign oil. Bioethanol is a fuel that can be derived from corn, sugar and other various crops. It is also a significantly cleaner fuel, and in that respect bioethanol can help in the greening of America's oil economy and give a viable boost to the American heartland.

However, as crops become part of a fuel economy, commodity food prices are destined to become evermore interlinked. Besides food prices going up as food crops are turned into bio-fuels, the volatility of the energy market as a whole is going to rub off on the commodity market. This is bad news for consumers and industry alike, not to mention the poor. This in turn will, and already has, affected the self sufficiency of crop production: the USA used to be one of the largest exporters of soy, but has now become of the largest importers thereof. There is a very real threat that ‘fuelification’ of food crops could inherently exacerbate that trend to other crops such as grain, sugar and corn.

As mentioned before, America needs to undergo a cultural revolution in order to change its ways. More specifically, she requires an urban revolution based on the de-suburbanization of the country. The expansion of public transport: metros, buses, trams, and yes, trains. In a nutshell; a European, if not Dutch approach towards tackling transport, the environment and oil dependency. Only then can America begin to curb its addiction to foreign oil.