Let Them Eat Bugs: Climate Change Investors Could Lose Billions If They Follow Bill Gates' Lead

If the quote "Let Them Eat Cake!" is not part of your high school classwork memories, then the similarity of Bill Gates' latest statement supporting climate change infrastructure might be neither familiar in tone nor currently relevant.  To the climate change investor, however, it may be a lesson from the past that foretells of financial ruin for the wealthy and more practical focus on the global economy.

"Let Them Eat Cake" in History

One version of Marie Antoinette's historic gaffe to the starving French people follows a story something like this. Whether it is accurate or not, that is left to the historians.

Insulated from much of daily life in the1700s, the French royal family, lived and ruled from the security of the Chateau Versailles, a community centered on life at Court.   Issues such as illness, inflation and famine were something to be tolerated as part of life. It was not until the reign of the young Louis XVI that royal wishes shifted the focus away from a working economy to one focused largely on the trappings of the Baroque Period.

For Marie, wife of Louis XVI, the loud and violent protests that surrounded her home and carriage seemed confusing and inappropriate.  When asked why they were protesting, and then learning they had no bread to eat, she simply stated the obvious, "Let them eat cake!"  She had no understanding of how crop failure translated into a lack of flour which then logically meant a lack of bread. Because she had both bread and cake, she naively assumed, all people had the same options.

Her ignorance of this situation would go down as one trigger for the French Revolution  (1789-1799), with her being beheaded in October of 1793 as a result. 

Infrastructure Without A Purpose

Like Louis XVI, Gates is a wealthy man and can direct funds to multiple projects. The young King would spend the 20 years prior to the French Revolution turning a well appointed chateau and hunting lodge into the Palace we now associate with the Versailles name.  Like the 2,300 room palace and grounds which were never again used as anything more than a testament to the fall of the privileged, Gates' desire to create a framework of unnecessary and expensive food production could bring him and others to financial ruin.

One version of the businessman's message, "Let Them Eat Bugs!", was recently published by Cheryl K. Chumley, in the Washington Times. The subscription-only article apparently explains why a wealthy man would gobble up North Dakota farmland which until two weeks ago was protected by law. Is the article for or against such waste of resources? Who knows but this post is adamantly against such funding, especially by taxpayers because nature will always adapt faster than humans.

What the Data Doesn't Tell You?

Without getting into too much detain, here are a few missed factors that will cause the "Let Them Eat Bugs!" to fail

1. A three degree temperature increase could actually expand growing seasons particularly in the Northeast.  
2. A three degree temperature increase will not cause ice caps to melt but could make it possible for some area in the Southeaster US or Mexico to group food year round. 
3. The nutritional value of food is not based on the food itself but on the elements in the soil at the time of growth. Fossil fuel use allows this to happen naturally. Since clean air, farmers have to use fertilizers produced from (wait for it) FOSSIL FUELS. 
4. Gates is likely gobble=ing up land to use for ethanol (potatoes and corn are particularly good for that) which is a poor energy source. It also take food out of the food supply to make a non-edible product.  Gates wants to an artificial oil baron instead of a crude oil baron. Either way it is about making money not feeding the world or saving the planet. 

 The bottom line is that Gates is, like Louis XVI, acting on his vision of a World that has no purpose other than to be historically remembered.

Sorry Bill.. 

The Food Value Cost of Ethanol: The Inefficiency of the Uneducated Politican

The hungry man sees the folly of Bio-Fuels before the World is starving. Politicians wait for the World to be starving then blame farmers, truck drivers, and War for believing  in the illusion of abundant food.  

**Special Note: Do you know why Putin waiting until after the 2022 Olympic games to wage war on Ukraine.  If you follow the global farm report you will glean that he, unlike President Biden, was waiting until the winter wheat crop was harvested, The Ukraine wheat fields are the largest in Eastern Europe  and feed not only Russian citizens but much of Europe.  Putin now has until fall to pound Ukraine before needing it is time to plant wheat again.  

With a quick scribble, Joe Biden recently signed an executive order allowing fuel companies to add up to 15% ethanol to gasoline used in personal and commercial vehicles. His reason was two fold--to steer the nation toward a more climate friendly position and to drop the cost of gasoline by "sticking" it to the oil companies. 

But does our President have even a clue as to what the cost of that move is for the American public. After all, US citizens have come out of a two-year economic lock-down only to see the federal government bungle everything from energy reserves to ever increasing volumes of commercially produced food that has been contaminated with foreign matter, and dangerous levels of bacteria.  Isn't it strange that the more our politicians focus on keeping us safe, the more danger we are in due to governmental inefficiency.

Mr. President,  Here's what one tankful of ethanol could take away from the US food supply.  Can America afford the biofuel World you envision and will we become dependent of foreign countries for our food in this time of transition?

The following list was compiled using a simple calculator (no computer modeling) and product conversion rates readily published on various agricultural websites such as the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). These rates can fluctuate but are not generally disputed. 

Production rates for ethanol, as reported on the internet, are very different.  They range from 300 gallons per acre to as low as 15 gallons per acre. For the purpose of this list we have chosen the MOST efficient operation and budgeted 400 pounds of corn for this fill-up.

Potential Food Loss for each 15 gallons of Ethanol Produced in the US.

•  10 large bags of corn or tortilla chips (10 pounds)
•  12 boxes of corn muffin or hush puppy mix(6 pounds)
•  10 boxes of Taco Shells, 10 count (8 pounds)
  
•  10 Family Size boxes of Corn Flakes (15 pounds)
•   20 Cans of Whole Kernel Corn (15 pounds)
•  20 Cans Creamed style Corn (10 pounds--more cream less corn)
•  10 large boxes of microwave popcorn (20 pounds)
•  20 pounds farm raised catfish  (52 pounds-2.6 to 1)
•  20 pounds broiler chicken  (32 pounds 1.6 pounds to 1)
•  20 pounds of pork, any cut (60 pounds, 3 pounds to 1)
•  20 pounds of beef, any cut (120 pounds, 6 pounds to 1 but can be higher)  
• 1 bottle of corn oil for cooking (52 pounds of corn)

Yes, ALL this food can be produced from the corn used to produce ONE tankful of ethanol. But remember this was using the most positive outcome for advocates of ethanol.  The least efficient operation would use up 20 times this amount of food to produce one tankful of ethanol based fuel. 

Has to be Fiction?

Certainly, the math could be off slightly but the federal government diverts tons of corn into alternative energy products every years at the expense of the consumer.  A 2019 estimate of ethanol production was reported at 15 billion liters or roughly 260 million tanks of fuel. 

 An Economy and Government Based on Waste

Sadly, it isn't Biden alone or Trump or even the last 20 years of President's who should be held accountable for this insane notion that an economy should be based on waste.  It is the bean counters and data collection people who create a false narrative of wealth and prosperity based on numbers.  It is the politician who diverts  money away from cheap and sustainable food programs and celebrity and media driven campaigns using catch phrases like Food Desserts and Stop Food Waste in America that promote such waste. 

There is NO reason why anyone in the country should go without food. No reason except the federal government uses food and the environment as a tool against the general population and companies it sees as being to powerful. 

If we unplugged our computers, forget the marketing campaigns and look for yourself, what you think is racism, poverty and discrimination may seem a whole lot more like propaganda promoted by this country's leadership not its people.