JohnRoux
The article\'s references to sugarcane should be replaced by palm oil or another biofuel feedstock. Sugarcane has been ruled by analysts as neutral in its effects on food scarcity. This is because, unlike corn etc., the bio-fuel from sugarcane (ethanol), is actually a CO-PRODUCT of the production process. i.e. it is made when you make sugar. So the more sugar you make, the more ethanol you can make too. This is because sugar production produces molasses, and the ethanol is extrated from molasses. You get it anyway. Many of the world\'s sugar producers are now doubling their revenue by making ethanol when they make sugar. Just consider Brazil. Sugarcane expansion itself is actually being driven by rising sugar consumption in India and China. As a bonus, you can make ethanol. In the past the molasses was used to make animal feed instead. Sugarcane is also the most efficient of all bio-fuel feedstocks - double bonus!
Mark Smith
That\'s coastal area is an enormous expanse and of course they ignore how heavily utilised most of that water is already. Note no actual numbers here.
Dawar Saify
Lets see this on the table, if allowed and congrats.
Jared Booth
@JohnRoux - I\'m not so sure that seaweed harvesting would reall need to take over a shore line. In most cases, this seaweed likes to grow in colder climates, and off rocky shores. We are not talking about confiscating Miami beach here. More like remote shores off Portland and Oregon.
George Vergese
Is there any processing that is being done on water hyacinth to generate energy from it. It grows wild in Kerala river waters and elsewhere globally and navigating through these weeds becomes a serious problem.
Q
Many farmers are paid NOT to grow and produce for various reasons (politics is prob. number one). I personally know of thousands of acres of land that is wasting away - and the govt. PAYS the farmer to NOT produce!!! Of course our politicians are paid by special interest groups for oil and other petroleum - but come election and speech time - they will proclaim how \"green\" they are!
Jim Sadler
Water Hyacinths in South Florida grow at astounding rates. For some reason there has been a failure in the past in the economy of harvesting the plants. However there is now some interesting machinery for harvesting hyacinths and it just might work with ease. Out in the Everglades and in Lake biomass gets so thick that it forms islands that are more like land that water. These machines now efficiently gobble up these islands removing tons of hyacinths rather quickly. The front of these barges looks like a paddle wheel and the spinning wheels just pushes the plant material up on deck. It works quite nicely.
Zappenfusen
Come on down South of the Mason-Dixon line. We\'re up to our arses in Kudzu.
ralph.dratman
I don\'t think the necessary amount of seaweed or similar vegetation could be gathered and processed for anything like a reasonable cost, whether measured in dollars or in energy used.
I could of course be wrong. That is why Mark Smith\'s point, \"Note no actual numbers here\" is so pertinent. Without numbers, it\'s only a daydream.
Ethan Brush
@mquinn6: they do that for many reasons, including huning and wldlife preservation, and it is very beneficial because if the soil didn\'t have a year to rest every now and then it would become infertile. That is simple farming bro. The government does that so that the farmer doesn\'t go bankrupt when letting his land recover nutrients for a season.
I love this idea. Seaweed is the fastest growing plant in the world, faster than bamboo even, and grows up to 3 feet per day. It is amazing stuff, if only it was a grain. Imagine, seaweed lasagna or frosted seaweed flakes. Sweet.