Geoffrey Purcell wrote:
> As for coconut being used as a biofuel, this is a well-established fact. 
> Just search online  under "oconut oil biofuel" or "coconut oil biodiesel" 
> and you'll find endless references(eg:-


You're right... in Southeast Asia there seems to be quite a bit
of experimentation with coconut oil for bio-diesel.  Here in
South America I've seen none of that.

In any case it's pretty crazy, but like Lynnet said, sometimes
the desire for fuel self-sufficiency outweighs economic
arguments.  But while people may try using existing coconut
production for this, nobody is going to plant coconut palms on
a large scale to make bio-diesel... there are too many other
plants that are more economical and grow well in the same
climates.

As to the argument about the value of bio-fuel in general, my
perspective is this... intrinsically, bio-fuel is a good thing.
If I grow oil seeds on my land (more or less sustainably) to
power my own tractor for example, it's a good thing... better
than using fossil fuel, for all of the obvious reasons.  Also 
keep in mind that until about one or two centuries ago all 
of civilization was using a "bio-fuel" that most of the poorest 
30% of the human population is still using for most of their 
modest energy needs: wood.

But in the context of the insane way agriculture is done in our
civilization, converting food production to fuel production is
just an accelleration of the general crazyness that will lead us
to collapse.  Even without bio-fuel food production and other
energy uses are already competing because modern food production
is so heavily based on energy inputs.  With bio-fuel we're
only making that competition a little more explicit.

So I think the anti-bio-fuel crowd is missing the real point:
that we're doing agriculture the wrong way to begin with, and
between soil degradation, rising energy costs, and growing
population with growing energy "needs", not to mention climate
change, food WILL get more and more expensive regardless of
whether we convert some of the food production to bio-fuel or
not.

:j