Our Food in Their Gas Tank

The troubling thing about our dependance on oil is that there really is nothing that can replace it effectively. As the Guardian points out, there is simply not enough arable land in Britian to produce enough bio-fuel; the only real solution to the long-term replacement of oil. The fate of Briton's, condemned to live on their tiny Isle, is really just a microcosm of what we all face in the future, so how they steer this ship could just be a snapshot of the worldwide problem we face.

Farmland acreage throughout the world continues to decrease as our populations create more urban sprawl. This growth rate continues to push out viable farmland turning it into shopping malls and housing. Clearly, something has to change, as oil shortages demand the adoption of alternate fuel sources.

Europe and Great Britain have already committed to slowly introducing bio-fuels into the marketplace for use with diesel engines. As gasoline becomes more and more expensive, farmers should simply replace their food crops with crops used to create bio-fuels. Seems simple enough.

China is now the world's second largest consumer of oil next to the U.S. Unlike us though, they are still a developing nation, so are far from reaching their full-potential in terms of industrial capacity. However, China, like several other nations, rely upon countries like Australia and the U.S. as a source for food as they are unable to produce enough to feed their own citizens.

The same could be said for Europe. France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and a host of other nations simply don't have enough arable land in which to grow both crops for food and transportation. Something further than the simple adoption of bio-fuels must give way.

The relationship between food and oil will become synonymous,so as the price of oil rises, food costs increase.

Hybrid cars could help with further increasing fuel efficiency, but the truth is that even if future cars and engines get over 200 miles per gallon, there still won't be enough land to produce both commodities.

Unless properly regulated we could certainly see drastic food shortages in several county's including this one. And, of course, the poor will suffer first.

It is not entirely unrealistic to suppose that people could die of starvation because they can't afford to purchase food at such high prices so that others can continue to drive their sporty SUV's.

You could make a note blaming the consumer, but let's face it, it is the fault of the government who listen to corporations that control the worlds most valuable resource, oil.

Unless they begin to steer this ship in the right direction, we may all sink.