Price of agricultural product around the world is on the rise, and the culprit, at least the most obvious one, is what is called ethanol. As a substitute for fossil fuel, ethanol has been chased by many pro-eco activists now, and therefore its market shares keeps growing. Although it's still hard to perdict whether or not it will successfully dethrone the long dominance of fossil fuel, the influence has already manifested itself. Yet, before we are too thrilled by this real advance to make the earth a better place to live, we may as well ask ourselves what will the consquences be following this trend.

Ethanol is made from crops, and currently the main feedstock in the United States for the production of ethanol is corn, the price of which has been quadrupled in the past year. As more and more bio-fuel is demanded, it is inevitable that the day human beings have to choose between saving for mouth or saving for hands and feet (which are freed by energy consuming machines) will come sooner or later. Being a cynical person as I am, I just can't wait to see the world's reaction when things get heated up. Of course, the problem may not be of life-and-death importance, and I do have the confidence that we will be able to come though just as we have gone through the problem of assigning the crops to feed ourselve or our livestocks by choosing a balanced diet.

 

Have said all the conflicting things myself, I am certainly looking for a greener future. Yet I also want to bring the concerns to people's mind that before we all rush into the greenest, at least let us thoroughly consider the fragility of our agriculture (there are just too many uncertainties in the traditional ways of growing crops and raising livestocks), the strained hurdle on bio-research (it's a dangerous game to program the genes without knowing its long time effect on the ecosystem) and the tenuity of the shared interests between developed countries and the developing ones (the environment and the poverty problems can't be seperated, as long as we are sharing the same earth and the same global market. We have to make sure that we are actually making progress and not just breaking other people's walls to fix our own). We will have to be more efficient in utilizing our limited sources to meet both our increasing demand on higher standard of living and conscientiousness towards our neighbors on the same planet. Despite the my worried nature, I do believe the green wagon will keep on going, not just because of people's good intentions, but also more because of the underlying economic principles--the market will make the decision to choose the most cost effective way to distribute resources. So as long as we keep on making the effort to deliver environment friendly solutions, the world will BE a better place to live.