Earlier this year I read that the European Commission had given the green light to farmers in France and Italy to once again convert their surplus wine into bioethanol.
The farmers get a subsidy for distillation of the surplus wine. I guess they also got a subsidy for growing it?
Meanwhile there has been some recent discussion at this blog about world grain stocks being dangerously low because of increasing convertion of grain to biofuels. There has also been discussion about the Queensland government building a dam so farmers can grow grapes.
There seems no limit to human ingenuity and folly when it comes to farming?
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD has worked in industry and government. She is currently researching a novel technique for long-range weather forecasting funded by the B. Macfie Family Foundation.
“There seems no limit to human ingenuity and folly.”
I’d leave it at that!
This bit of news seems new, but is actually quite old.
In the US, unsold candy bars for festive events such as Halloween, Valentine’s Day, Easter and others are fed into grinders for ethanol.
In the European situation, it’s regulators playing with public money that drive excess into ethanol. In the US, it’s private market forces that drive excess into ethanol.
(Okay, please, I know US regulators are subsidizing corn into ethanol, my apologies.)
Still, the notion that the “noble grapes” from the vaunted wineries of “Fraunce” are used to power SUVs in the US due to European subsidies is hugely entertaining.
Tasteful, even. Perhaps pungent, with a lively hint of green.
You’ll continue to see more vines ripped out and replaced by anyone of a number of staple food crops, but more than likely wheat. It is happening already here in Western Australia. It seems we need wheat more than we need wine.