[M John Galt]

For every liter of petro energy used to produce biodiesel, 3 liters of biodiesel are produced. For every liter of petro energy used to produce ethanol in N.America they might get a liter of ethanol if everything works at it's best. Grain ethanol is a scam.

The "Biofuels Take Food From Our Mouths" argument is based on fallacy. The two most common biofuel feedstocks, corn and soybeans, are grown for animals to feed the industrial meat business producing pork, poultry and beef. Processing these feedstocks to extract sugars or oils to make biofuels, makes the byproduct 'seed cake' and 'spent mash' more digestible as animal feed. Same with the 'seed cake' from canola. Thus the animals get more nutrition from the byproduct than the original feedstock, and less is crapped out as waste. We can get food and fuel from the same crop.

Granted that the feedstock grains and legumes could be exported to feed the starving millions instead of being used to feed meat animals. But that practice has been going on for decades, is not likely to change, and is totally external to the biofuels issue.

The world's poor are not starving because of biofuels but rather due to a variety of causes including local corruption which 're-directs' food aid, and the fact that 50% of the world's population no longer lives in rural areas where they fed themselves, but now live in sprawling mega slums where food has to be shipped in at ever increasing transportation costs due to rising petroleum prices.