Wednesday 20 January, 2010

OIL-flation, the Coming Energy-Based Agricultural Disaster.

Oil is not only used for refining into gasoline and diesel fuel, petro-chemicals are contained in virtually every commodity and item manufactured including consumer items such as anything made of plastic, which is almost everything, plus the container it was shipped in.
Over 6,000 products contain some proportion of oil. Below is a partial list, but that isn't the point of this article - please read on to see the coming disaster.

A partial list of products made from Petroleum (144 of 6000 items)

One 42-gallon barrel of oil creates 19.4 gallons of gasoline. The rest (over half) is used to make things like:

Solvents	Diesel fuel	Motor Oil	Bearing Grease
Ink	Floor Wax	Ballpoint Pens	Football Cleats
Upholstery	Sweaters	Boats	Insecticides
Bicycle Tires	Sports Car Bodies	Nail Polish	Fishing lures
Dresses	Tires	Golf Bags	Perfumes
Cassettes	Dishwasher parts	Tool Boxes	Shoe Polish
Motorcycle Helmet	Caulking	Petroleum Jelly	Transparent Tape
CD Player	Faucet Washers	Antiseptics	Clothesline
Curtains	Food Preservatives	Basketballs	Soap
Vitamin Capsules	Antihistamines	Purses	Shoes
Dashboards	Cortisone	Deodorant	Footballs
Putty	Dyes	Panty Hose	Refrigerant
Percolators	Life Jackets	Rubbing Alcohol	Linings
Skis	TV Cabinets	Shag Rugs	Electrician's Tape
Tool Racks	Car Battery Cases	Epoxy	Paint
Mops	Slacks	Insect Repellent	Oil Filters
Umbrellas	Yarn	Fertilizers	Hair Coloring
Roofing	Toilet Seats	Fishing Rods	Lipstick
Denture Adhesive	Linoleum	Ice Cube Trays	Synthetic Rubber
Speakers	Plastic Wood	Electric Blankets	Glycerin
Tennis Rackets	Rubber Cement	Fishing Boots	Dice
Nylon Rope	Candles	Trash Bags	House Paint
Water Pipes	Hand Lotion	Roller Skates	Surf Boards
Shampoo	Wheels	Paint Rollers	Shower Curtains
Guitar Strings	Luggage	Aspirin	Safety Glasses
Antifreeze	Football Helmets	Awnings	Eyeglasses
Clothes	Toothbrushes	Ice Chests	Footballs
Combs	CD's & DVD's	Paint Brushes	Detergents
Vaporizers	Balloons	Sun Glasses	Tents
Heart Valves	Crayons	Parachutes	Telephones
Enamel	Pillows	Dishes	Cameras
Anesthetics	Artificial Turf	Artificial limbs	Bandages
Dentures	Model Cars	Folding Doors	Hair Curlers
Cold cream	Movie film	Soft Contact lenses	Drinking Cups
Fan Belts	Car Enamel	Shaving Cream	Ammonia
Refrigerators	Golf Balls	Toothpaste	Gasoline

(info courtesy of: Ranken Energy)

As oil prices rise, the costs of all those consumer items rise with them. But golf balls and crayons aren't the point of this exercise. The point is that petro-chemicals are also now used, but can be replaced, to produce the foods you feed your family.
Oil is currently a large proportion of agricultural costs. Oil is used to power the tractors to plow the fields and plant the seeds; oil is used to make fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and then power the equipment to apply those substances; oil is used to power the pumps for irrigation; oil is used to power the tractors to harvest the crops, and last but not least, oil is used to power the trucks that deliver the foods to your local grocery store. In America, food travels an average of 2,000 miles from the farm to the table according to the WorldWatch Institute.
As the price of oil rises, not only will the price of consumer items in the list above be effected, but also the prices of everything you eat, from apples to zuchinni.
Look at these numbers: a little over a decade ago, when former VP Dick Cheney was the chairman of the newly formed National Energy Policy Development Group, a barrel of oil cost less than $20 and it accounted for about 22% of agriculture's overhead.
Today, at $77 per barrel it accounts for over 50% of agriculture's overhead and at $100 per barrel that percentage will be over 70%.
In July of 2008 the price of a barrel of oil reached $147.30 - do you think it's possible for that to happen again?
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, America's energy needs will rise 54% by the year 2025. The days of $200 per barrel oil are coming according to Dr. Colin Campbell, one of the world's leading oil geologists, and he was quoted in 2004 as saying, "If the real figures were to come out, there would be panic on the stock markets. We are on the verge of an imminent energy crisis of unprecedented proportion."
So, that's the bad news: What's the good news?
It is a scientifically proven fact that we can replace the Oil with Industrial Hemp and Commercial Algae BioDiesel to power the engines of the farming equipment, which are now mostly Diesel engines anyway.
We can replace Oil with BioDiesel that we can grow right here in America.
The only people who will tell you this isn't possible are the Big Oil executives, who are making mega-millions of dollars through their un-patriotic robbery of the American People; and their Political Lackeys, who are collecting millions of dollars in campaign contributions (see Bribes) from their petro-drenched Bosses.
We can avert this crisis if we act now. Hoping and dreaming won't work. Burying our heads in the sand won't work. Relying on the politicians, who got us in this mess, to fix it won't work.
Click below to find out how WE THE PEOPLE can fix it: