Scientific American published an article from Reuter's yesterday which dealt with the problem of rising global food prices. They note that "Global food prices hit a record high in February, and the FAO said last week that further oil price spikes and stockpiling by importers keen to head off unrest would hit already volatile cereal markets." In addition to rising oil prices and stockpiling, they also mention the increased use of food products to produce biofuels as a reason for the increase in food prices.
This may very well be the case, especially with nations like the U.S. using corn as the primary crop for biofuel production. Corn is notoriously inefficient as a crop for biofuel (estimates for it's efficiency are that corn produces between 1 and 2 gallons of fuel for every 1 gallon of fuel needed for its growth.) Moreover, as corn is a staple food crop, each ear that goes into biofuel is an ear not destined for the table.
This is why the development of technologies such as cellulosic ethanol and biofuels from algae or cyanobacteria are so important. Cellulosic technologies would allow us to use much more of the plant than just corn kernels when producing ethanol. Moreover, we could eschew corn altogether for biofuel production and rely on plants such as switchgrass, leaving corn for consumption. The growing conditions for switchgrass and other cellulose heavy plants may be more forgiving as well, allowing us to grow these crops on lands not typically hospitable to crops. Algae and cyanobacteria are also potentially game changing vectors for biofuel production. One can imagine self-contained algae farms being built in sun-rich, but agriculture poor areas.
One concern I have is that it seems presently all biofuels are lumped together. Unfotunately, this may result in decreased interest and investment in next-generation technologies which have the promise of severely decreasing or eliminating the detriments of current biofuel production, while maintaining all of their benefits.
Nice article, I've always been bothered when they use food crops for biofuel too but algae and bacteria sound awful clever. Not to mention that they are abundunt! I didn't realize that corn was so inefficient to use to make biofuel! But I stay away from corn products unless they're certified organic anyway. Not that this helps anyting but I try...Anyway I answered your question about DeBroglie wavelengths and why you don't see a baseball act as a probabilistic wave.
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