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OUR COMMON TABLE - thoughts from John Shields
Burning Our Calories 
In a culture obsessed with consuming -not only trinkets, clothing, or the latest technological gadgets, but with ever increasing amounts of food (as evidenced by our collective expanding waist size) we're also obsessive about burning those extra calories. Witness the plethora of diet books, diet gurus, weight loss pills and million of dollars spent on health and fitness centers.
Well, I am here to inform you that human ingenuity has once again prevailed. Our best minds have come up with the Ultimate Diet Plan: bio-fuels, most notably ethanol and bio-diesel. One may question my logic here -Aren't these fuels, burnt to make energy to make our motors run? Hmm.... Consider: How does the motor of the human body run? Well, we eat food, which in turn becomes energy (Calories are a measurement of energy.) which in turn enables us to move, and basically, to Live! And how does a bio-fuel make the industrial motor run? It creates energy from food -just like we do! (Unfortunately it takes almost as much energy input from fossil fuels -oil and natural gas, to create the bio-fuel, as the bio-fuel produces -but that's another issue!) Anyway, the energy created by the conversion of food to fuel then runs our cars, trucks and busses and other motors that enable our modern way of living. Now, let's look at current events to see why some scientists are franticly exploring the production of bio-fuels. International politics comes immediately to mind... insurgency in Iraq and the gathering chaos in the Middle East, that trouble-making government in Venezuela, and rebels in the oil producing countries of Africa... Just look around and it's obviously getting more and more difficult for us Americans to feel secure about getting a goodly supply of the ever-dwindling reserves of oil. Consequently, with less oil available, and the price of the remaining oil (Natural gas too!) continuously increasing, we become aware that in order to drive our massive fleet of automobiles we need a new energy resource that will make us less dependent on all these unstable oil producing countries. (It doesn't help a bit that they don't seem to appreciate the fact that the "American way of life is not negotiable" either!) So... we enter the new world of bio-fuels. Ethanol is made primarily from corn here in the US, and from sugarcane in Brazil and South America. There are numerous ethanol plants already built in the Midwest of this country, and hundreds more in the planning stages. Here in Maryland plans are underway to build bio-diesel facilities on the eastern shore. Now, I certainly don't diminish the importance of developing alternative sources of non fossil fuel energy - we've got to do that for sure! But I believe it is important to look at just how we choose to use this technology, and to be fully aware of the repercussions involved in our choices. The reality is that most ethanol produced here will be derived from corn. Corn is a food staple. It feeds people, but it's also the primary feed for most of our livestock -which in turn means that most of our meat, poultry, dairy, and even farmed fish, comes from corn. Corn is also converted into corn syrup, which is the main sweetener for almost all soft drinks and processed food. I am not inferring that I support our dependence on corn for all these products, but the fact is: Corn is one of the primary staple crops feeding this country, and the world. A number of researchers have shown that even if every single acre of arable land in the United States was planted with nothing but corn, we would not even come close to providing the current energy needs of the country. Even knowledgeable folks who are working in the development of ethanol do not propose that we should try to be totally dependent on ethanol, or even bio-diesel. It's accepted that we need a combination of alternative fuels and I agree. However, we see ethanol heralded in the mainstream media (and by certain politicians and corporate entities) as the "Savior" of the farms of America. Let's get one fact indelibly clear: Turning corn into bio-fuel turns our heartland into "edible" oil fields! Oil and other fossil fuels are expensive, and as ethanol begins to compete with fossil fuel, the cost of corn will greatly increase, as well as everything associated with it. This may seem like a win-win for our farmers, but it fact will only be a win for the large energy corporations and large agricultural corporations, and quite often they are one and the same. Just this week the Wall Street Journal wrote: "Americans face sizable increases in their grocery bills this year as the boom in ethanol production diverts more corn from the nation's dinner table to its gas tank. Indeed, their pocketbooks could feel the pinch for years to come." As a chef I see the effects already. Beef, pork and poultry prices are rising each month. The price of a bushel of corn, which was $2 last year, has risen to $3.20 already, resulting in a 40% increase in the cost of feeding chickens. The same is true in cattle production as well. As farmers plant more and more corn they plant less wheat and other edible crops -and prices rise on these as well.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, as our food becomes industrial motor fuel. Another loser in the corn-for-energy scheme is the health of our soil. The crops being grown for ethanol production are genetically modified varieties, specifically designed to be grown with vast amounts of chemical fertilizer, made from natural gas by the way. The dirt (It cannot even be called soil!), long-depleated by intensive mono-cropping, becomes little more than a sponge to hold the chemical fertilizer. James Howard Kunstler, author of "The Long Emergency," writes in his blog: As a Pennsylvania farmer put it to me in February, "It looks like we are going to burn up the last remaining six inches of Midwest topsoil in our gas tanks." Recently President Bush traveled to Brazil to herald a US/Brazilian partnership to create a huge ethanol industry. Millions of acres of land in Brazil will now grow sugarcane to produce ethanol. Most of it will be shipped to the U.S. to power our automobiles. Sounds good -or does it?
The land that the multinational energy companies are buying in Brazil was, or still is in some cases, either rain forest or usable cropland. Right now the rainforest (the "lungs" of the planet) is being bulldozed to plant industrially mono-cropped sugarcane so that the First World (us) can have cheap fuel to drive our cars. The announcment of this South American ethanol endeavor was enough to rouse Fidel Castro from his sick bed. He denounced the US focus on ethanol production as "sinister" and a threat to the hungry masses of the world. Castro went on to say that the US "internationalizes genocide" with this energy policy. Wow. Harsh words... But could they be true? The bottom line is that we just may have a bit of madness going on here. Ethanol and other bio-fuels do have a place in our energy plans, but to suppose they are the answer to cheaply fueling our trucks and automobiles is sheer madness! We're looking at chaotic climate change caused by burning hydro-carbons; our streams and bays are polluted by our love affair with the internal combustion engine. We know this, and we all say we want to save the planet and "go Green," but do we really want to change our behavior? I fear not. But just wait... fueling our cars with food just may be the ticket to change, whether we chose it or not. As we squander our food supply to meet our demands for fuel to burn, there will be less and less calories available for our bodies. Eventually massive starvation could well ensue and -Voila! We've got the ultimate, and possibly the final, Diet Plan! In my humble opinion, we need to rebuild our soil and support our local farms. We need to grow healthy, real food for future generations and ourselves to eat --not burn. If my grandmother, Gertie -God rest her soul- saw me pouring a precious food product into my gas tank, she'd smack me up alongside of my head and ask me: "Have you lost your mind?" Well, have we?
John Shields is the author of Chesapeake Bay Cooking and Coastal Cooking with John Shields. His PBS television program, "Coastal Cooking with John Shields," airs nationwide. John's web site is: www.JohnShields.com.
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