As the leaders of the G8 nations gather this week in Northern Japan to discuss the issues of rising oil prices, greenhouse gases, world poverty, the current food crisis and what to do about Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe they might take a little time to consider alternatives to corn and wheat as bio fuel additives.
A discussion about Sweet Sorghum might actually touch on all of the agenda issues, might even help Zimbabwe get their agricultural failures back on track.
Sweet Sorghum is a corn like plant. It grows taller, produces a grain, needs little water, can be cultivated in poor soil and used to produce ethanol.
Unlike corn, which requires the plant’s grain to produce fuel, sweet sorghum only has to provide the plant stalk, the grain remains with the farmer for personal food or feed for livestock.
The global demand for ethanol has contributed to the rising costs of food grains like corn, wheat and rice, food that could be better used for human consumption.
As an added bonus sweet sorghum requires less energy to produce fuel than traditional grains.
It takes one and half units of energy to produce one energy unit of corn ethanol. In developing nations sweet sorghum can yield eight units of energy for every energy unit needed to produce it.
Sweet sorghum can grow with limited irrigation, can survive some flooding and tolerate a degree of salt water. It can grow in dry areas allowing it to flourish unlike other bio fuel additves such as Palm Oil which needs rain forest like conditions or sugar cane which needs good soil and water.
G8 meetings have long been characterized as being events of political paralysis. Over the years of the meetings there has been very little resolve about major global issues.
The G8 communiques have always spoken about dealing with issues like global warming at a future date, on a future agenda.
It would seem that the only things that change during the G8 meetings are the weather, the cost of fuel and the rising cost of food but not the politics.
