tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2333050153234224233.post573819028974597927..comments2010-02-01T06:35:35.626-05:00Comments on The Six Billion: A Brief History of Corn Biofuel in CanadaMichael Reimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16477283798428025947noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2333050153234224233.post-6228195734785971772008-08-01T13:15:00.000-04:002008-08-01T13:15:00.000-04:00Thanks Nadim, good to know that these things actua...Thanks Nadim, good to know that these things actually get read by someone else. I'm generally in full agreement with what you wrote, but here are some quibbles/questions:<BR/><BR/><I>Divide 4.86 billion by 13 and we have 374 million starving children who could have been fed, all by a single country!!</I><BR/><BR/>This is a little sensationalist, since it doesn't consider distribution. I.e. there's a big jump between how many people the corn could feed, in theory, and how many people the country could feed with that corn, in practice. That said I have no doubt that your general point is correct - if all of those resources were devoted to feeding starving children, the number should still be impressively large. I point this out mainly because I think it's important that we aren't just writing pieces like these for one another, but also for people who might be approaching our position skeptically, and they will be more easily thrown off by things like that. (It's entirely possible that I missed similar biases in my own writing, so I won't be offended if you point out any such hypocrisy.)<BR/><BR/><I>The only solution that will ensure a long-term future of peace and prosperity is spiritual — it can only be spiritual.</I><BR/><BR/>My understanding from a couple of Baha'i friends is that they are very open-minded about spirituality, and I'm not accusing you of evangelism here or anything, I'm just curious about your thoughts on the this:<BR/><BR/>Personally, I call myself agnostic. I've often heard it claimed by religious folk that I need some religion (typically their own) in order to be as moral as them, and I take exception to that idea - certainly it works for many people to hold their behaviour up against some divine standard, but I don't feel that it's the only way. By the same token, there is an association between the Christian right and the current American government (allegedly, Canadian as well), but that certainly isn't helping. I suppose there are different kinds of spirituality. So what exactly do you mean when you use the term?<BR/><BR/>Lastly, are you Canadian?Michael Reimerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16477283798428025947noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2333050153234224233.post-48546570904894395012008-08-01T11:45:00.000-04:002008-08-01T11:45:00.000-04:00Michael, thank you for this illuminating post! I'v...Michael, thank you for this illuminating post! I've just written one examining the moral/developmental implications of biofuel production - and it's nice to see some correlation:<BR/>http://www.bahaiperspectives.comUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07762600718723878275noreply@blogger.com