Alternative energy needs to focus on waste recycling

The giddy-eyed proponents of alternative energy bio fuels derived from agricultural commodities received a bit of a wake up call recently when prices of almost all major raw materials such as corn, oil palm, sugarcane, wheat, soya, peanuts and even cassava shot up sharply causing widespread jitters.

Mexico had street protests over soaring corn prices, India banned grain exports to curb inflation and business models of ethanol plants were called into question due to raw material prices and scarcities. As with any “sunrise industry” speculators have rushed in making “grain or agriculture commodity futures” the hot asset class currently replacing minerals & stocks.


Farmland prices from Iowa to Argentina have shown faster rates of appreciation than apartments in Manhattan and London for the first time in 30 years according to The Financial Times. Closer home prices of plantation land in Sumatra and Kalimantan have more than doubled since 2000 and even tea estates and traditional farms are being eyed for bio fuel purposes.

Juxtapose the above with two other important environmental factors — the growing shortage of water across the world and the concerns voiced by many ecologists that once the bio fuel genie escapes from the “green bottle”, the remaining tracts of rain forests will face an irreversible decline — and the conclusion becomes quite clear.

Jakarta Post