Using excess or leftover corn as a fuel source sure sounded like a good idea, especially here in the U.S. Let’s get our farmers from, I don’t, Iowa, to set aside a certain percentage of arable land for the production of fuel corn. (The term “fuel corn” may or may not exist, but it should if it doesn’t.) This corn, rather than being used for food, would be used for the production of ethanol, an alcohol that can power combustion engines. Follow the logic: grow corn, which is fairly inexpensive to do, create ethanol, power car engines. Simple, direct and seemingly a possible solution to our reliance on foreign oil and all the bonus adventurism that comes with that. Grow corn at home, or meddle in other people’s affairs for access to oil?

Onward! to our bright, biofueled future. Wait, what?

There’s a word in that opening paragraph that suddenly no longer applies, apparently. What if all that corn (and other sources of biofuel) is no longer “leftover”? What if, you know, we should be using all that corn (etc.) to feed people? (Food used to feed people? Madness!) What if the price of food, for some reason, skyrocketed, and the poorer peoples of the world look longingly at all that “excess” corn being used to fuel your dumb automobile?

It would seem we, Westerners, are stuck between a rock and a rock. Big rocks. With sharp edges.

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First of all, I think it should be said that the whole corn-as-fuel idea is a red herring when it comes to alternative energy. The corn industry is a bloated mess and throwing the demands of widespread biofuel use into the mix would probably push it beyond the breaking point and make for some really weird corn politics.

That said, if the process of fueling some things with corn is made easier and more efficient, there’s no reason why it couldn’t be used on a limited scale where it’s cost-effective. That’s why I’m glad advances like this one are being made. Dr. Mariam Sticklen at Michigan State University has been researching ways in which the most stubborn part of the corn plant can be easily broken down. She’s come up with three different strains of modified corn, each one with a different method of cellulose breakdown, each copied from a different microorganism.

The corn keeps the breakdown enzymes in vacuoles its stems and leaves, not in its seeds and pollen, which Sticklen says will prevent the plant from fertilizing other crops with the enzyme-producing gene. That doesn’t sound right to me; the gene would be found in the DNA of every cell, regardless of whether that cell produced the breakdown enzyme or not. Of course, unlike her I do not have a PhD in Bioengineering, so I’ll have to defer to her on this one.

There’s been riots over the rise in food prices.

You may heave heard about, or even seen first-hand, rising food costs. (As have I—milk is how much?) Just be grateful you’re not a biofuel producer, since those guys are feeling some heat, namely for “crimes against humanity.” That’s a hard accusation to shake, methinks.

Certain individuals are blaming biofuel producers for the high cost of food right now. Why waste foodstuffs producing fuel when people, quite literally, are starving because they cannot afford to buy food? Especially since the whole goal of biofuel—to help reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses in order to prevent global warming—really seems to be a Developed World concern more than anything else. When you’re living in the Developing World with several children to feed, do you really care if the temperature of the Earth has risen by a 1/100th of a degree? It’s just not an immediate, “I have to feed my children today or something bad will happen” concern.

It’s gotten so heated that some are demanding the European Union suspend its subsidization of biofuel. Obviously I’m not a foods scientist, but this quote, addressing what will happen if biofuel subsidies don’t end, from Nestlé’s CEO sounded scary enough:

There will be nothing left to eat

A fine way to start your day.

Why can’t anyone take a dignified mugshot anymore?

This man, David Richardson, was arrested for trying to steal used cooking grease from a Burger King. He was to use the grease for his biofuel Wacky Races car. While I agree he should have been arrested for even going to a Burger King—I’m a Howard Dean-loving, latte-drinking, New York liberal*—he should have known better. Many fast food joints will gladly hand over their used grease for the greater good, else they’ll have to pay someone to truck it off to the landfill (or wherever used grease goes to die).

*No I’m not

A Virgin Atlantic airplane fueled by a coconut and babassu nut biofuel mixture flew from London to Amsterdam at the weekend. It was the first commercial airline to fly on a biofuel mixture, something that Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson said would forever change the way the airline industry operates.

Before you run around, telling your friends that the fuel problem has been solved, know that there’s some caveats. First, though the flight was powered by biofuel, you need a hell of a lot of land to cultivate the needed plants. Do you know of anywhere where you can just cast away existing plants in order to grow the ones used by the fuel? Apparently saltwater-gorwn algae is the holy grail of biofuel, since you wouldn’t need to displace other crops in order to grow it.

Virgin exhibits coconut-powered flying jumbo [The Register]

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic airline will conduct a test flight at the end of the month wherein a Boeing 747 will fly from London to Amsterdam using an 80/20 blend of conventional fuel and biofuel, respectively. The plane will carry no passengers but will be “the first time a commercial aircraft has flown on biofuel,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

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