there’s always a catch

December 6th, 2005

Everyone’s talking about Biodiesel, particularly those of an environmental bent.

While filling up for free at your local fast food chain makes for a good story, we haven’t covered the topic, feeling there had to be a catch. Apparently that catch is that farmland is being used to support growing Biodiesel demand…

The U.K.’s The Guardian recently ran a piece on this topic; you’ll find a summary here.

2 Responses to “there’s always a catch”

  1. consumer Says:

    This I didn’t know, no more trees should be cut down for farmland considering the amount of land that already contributes to farming. And, what about the land that is subsudized by the government that isn’t being utilized for farming? What about posting an article about the benefits of using biodeisel? http://www.biodiesel.org There’s an awful lot of resturants whom pay a service to rid them of dirty vegetable oil. What about the effects of biodiesel or straight vegetable oil on the car?

  2. daanesh Says:

    Until we’ve done more research and distilled the facts from amidst the hype, we’re wary of suggesting anyone pour ‘dirty vegetable oil’ in their tanks, modifications or no.

    In the meantime, a clarification we found on the link you suggest, http://www.biodiesel.org:

    Q: Is Biodiesel the same thing as raw vegetable oil?

    A: No! Fuel-grade biodiesel must be produced to strict industry specifications (ASTM D6751) in order to insure proper performance… Raw vegetable oil cannot meet biodiesel fuel specifications, it is not registered with the EPA, and it is not a legal motor fuel.

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