Notice that Non-GMO does not necessarily mean “organic”…
Should be cool to read the full report: http://www.packagedfacts.com/Non-GMO-Foods-7822141/
But that would cost about $3,000… So we’ll have to read the discussion on it.
But the trends in whole foods — as in Whole Foods, Hanes, Chipoltles, etc. — has been more than impressive. The organic section of all grocery stores is growing like weeds, to offer a green mixed metaphor.
Looking forward to more momentum on the organic front.
Next generation of biofuels is still years away | Hattiesburg American | hattiesburgamerican.com:
Biofuel is a byline in the energy mix.
So biofuel is mandated. And because it is ordered to be true, it must be.
And because it is ordered to be true, the mandate must meet the expectations.
Thus is the problem with government subsidies… Burning food for fuel (corn to ethanol) is still a rather dumb idea, even though it is finally getting efficient enough that there is a small net gain gallon-equivalent per gallon of ethanol.
What would work perfectly well, from an economics point of view, is to raise taxes on non-renewable sources of fuel and energy. A simple carbon tax would do it. It could be progressive over time.
Then the more accurate costs of non-renewables would allow for the energy economy to shift and make its on path forward. The types of renewable fuel would decide themselves and the government would be out of the picture setting mandates in less-than-smart — some might say foolish — areas.
Of course the politicians who set the wheels in process for a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade (tax?) will soon find themselves out to pasture shoveling biowaste.
Sustainability becomes a business law:
This is a straight-forward article about sustainability in the ag world.
There are business forces that are pushing toward sustainability as a “business law”. Sustainability has always been a “law of nature”. Break the law consistently and you should expect “unpredictable” results. (Well, probably somewhat predictable, but certainly not good results.)
With the move toward $1T in non-GMO (organic-ish) worldwide, it is certainly clear that Ag needs to take the market seriously.
The market may make the non-sustainable business models extinct, long before the non-sustainable practices exhaust the non-sustainable businesses.
Look for an upcoming article here on “Fertilizer, a broken and non-sustainable business model”.
Fuel cell cars from Toyota, Honda, Hyundai set to debut at auto shows – latimes.com:
We’ve been waiting for decades (50 years?) for a fuel cell car.
It looks like Toyota will come out fist with a Fuel Cell car next year.
The fuel cell being announced this next week are coming from Honda and Hyundai.
Unfortunately, it seems, these will be hydrogen fuel based.
Other versions of Fuel Cell generators use liquid fuels, not straight hydrogen. Without fueling stations for hydrogen the technology is stuck where LP and LNG was 10 years ago before Clean Energy (and others) started putting up liquid natgas stations along the trucking corridors.
Let’s see what the announcement(s) bring.
As BP oil spill trial resumes, lying accusations bubble up – CBS News:
Everyone remembers the massive Gulf oil spill starting April 20, 2010 and 87 days of spillage.
As we all watched the pictures from the surface oil slick and the underwater cameras at the well head, it was a tale of two oil spills.
BP: trickle … => Media: deluge
BP: gallons … => Media: barrels
But the truth is, no one anywhere believed the BP numbers.
They really had no recovery plan. As this article said, they only had a plan to create a plan, if and when they needed a plan.
Disaster recovery plans for businesses have details that have been well thought through. One page for a wellhead breach under water is not exactly a detailed plan.
The dispersant (Corexit) works at the surface with sunlight and such. However about 45% of the Corexit was used at the well head, resulting in oil that was stuck in limbo half way to the surface. At the surface it can be removed and/or treated.
More importantly, apparently, for BP was that at the surface it can more accurately be MEASURED.
The difference between the 4.2m Barrels by Justice department experts and the 2.45mb by BP is almost half. Of course the BP numbers wrong. Is it more than 4.2mb, probably. Less, probably not.
Additionally, however, the $1,100 penalty max per barrel (~42 gal/brl) would be essentially 4 times that ($4,300/brl) if BP is found negligent.
That’s the difference between $18B in fines and about $2.7B (BP’s low-ball estimates and the lower fine).
There really is, however, lots of blame to go around. The regulatory agency that rubber-stamped everything oil and mining related has now be disbanded in disgrace. The “plans” were the same for all oil drillers. Everyone was doing the same types of drilling, although maybe not quite the lax monitoring/procedures.
AND the government had a limit on the exposure for drillers in a very cozy relationship with the oil companies. It was a paltry amount… with the official rationale of promoting drilling (and oil independence). Of course, that limitation was immediately revoked.
Can you imagine if BP were a smaller player that simply went bankrupt? The good thing about a BIG company with deep pockets (pun) is that you can make ’em pay, and then keep making them pay.
In the end, the oil industry is a far safer place because of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Here are some lessons learned (and used).