Ethical Issues"Food vs Fuel" Debate
One of the major ethical issues facing the use of biofuels (such as ethanol) is the issue of hunger. The use of biofuels could potentially impact people’s access to food. UN based analysis and reports indicate that large scale biofuel production and usage can lead to widespread starvation. This would be because the majority of corn type crops in the different breadbasket regions of the developed world would go towards the development and production of fuels instead of being used for food. Overall the paradox here is that in today’s rapidly growing world (population wise), around 850 million people are suffering from starvation, malnutrition and poverty. While on the other hand, developed countries usually show a surplus in their overall food/crop production, which would go towards the development of biofuels but in most cases is just destroyed. Another issue over this is that the mass harvesting of these biofuels can lead to deforestation in certain parts of the world. It can also at the same time lead to desertification and erosion. Another big issue is that the amount of energy and work that goes into harvesting and producing biofuels is much bigger that the amount of energy that goes into extracting fossil fuels from the earth. But then we also have to face that fact that fossil fuels will most likely be depleted before the end of the century (based on current projections).  |
 If we used somebody some one else's food for our fuel, would that lead to widespread humanitarian disaster and conflict in other developing countries? [Image Above]
For example, if someone were to start a biofuel company, they would have to be prepared to file state income taxes on their product and on top of that would have to pay a franchise taxes if required by their state. They would also have to contact their state environmental regulatory agency's about Another legal factor would be that biofuel agencys/companies would have to comply with the EPA's Spill Prevention Plan. This plan basically states that if your facility holds more than1300 gallons of *capacity* to store liquid storage to file a formal Spill Prevention Countermeasures Control Plan (SPCC). This must be signed off and cleared by a legitimate environmental engineer. the only problem this poses is that the cost of this process can be anywhere from $2000-$5000. (via Legal/Regulatory Issues)
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