http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aUvWQgEoXblI&refer=latin_america

March 29 (Bloomberg) -- Fidel Castro accused U.S. President George W. Bush of condemning billions of people to ``premature death'' by promoting the use of biofuels, in the Cuban leader's first signed article since he had intestinal surgery in July.

In the article titled ``More Than 3 Billion People in the World Condemned to Premature Death From Hunger and Thirst,'' the 80-year-old Cuban president attacked Bush's promotion of alternative fuels such as ethanol, made mainly from corn and aimed at reducing U.S. dependence on oil imports. Castro objected to the use of farmland for fuel production instead of food.

``This is not an exaggeration. It is very cautious,'' Castro wrote in the article in the Communist Party's official Granma newspaper and carried today on its Web site. ``I have thought about this a great deal since President Bush's meeting with the North American automakers,'' he wrote, referring to Bush's talks with the U.S. industry's leaders in Washington on March 26.

At that meeting, the automakers' chief executive officers urged Bush to back incentives to increase the use of ethanol and biodiesel to run vehicles.

The Cuban government is increasing its own production of ethanol using sugarcane and will increase the amount of farmland devoted to the crop, Vice President Carlos Lage said in November.

Bush aims to reduce gasoline consumption in the U.S. by 20 percent in the next 10 years, he said in a speech during a March 9 visit to Brazil to discuss cooperation in developing biofuels. ``We have a mandated fuel standard of 35 billion gallons of alternative fuels to be used by 2017,'' Bush said.

`Sinister Idea'

Castro wrote, ``you need 320 million tons of corn to produce 35 billion gallons of ethanol,'' and that it is dangerous to offer financial incentives to ``poor countries'' to produce ethanol from corn. The ``sinister idea'' of converting food into fuel has been ``definitively established as the economic line of U.S. foreign policy,'' Castro said in the article.

``Apply this idea to Third World countries and you will see how many people among the hungry masses of this planet stop eating corn,'' Castro wrote.

Recycling all cars is an ``elemental and urgent necessity for all humanity,'' Castro said. Castro ceded authority to his brother Raul on July 31 after undergoing surgery for an intestinal hemorrhage. Castro's disappearance from public view during his recovery prompted speculation he was near death. He then appeared on state television on Jan. 30 with visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Castro became Cuban leader after the 1959 revolution. Since 1962, the U.S. has maintained an economic embargo of the island nation located 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of Florida.

Peter, Castro jumped the shark many years ago when he suspended all civil liberties and rights in Cuba.

He is not a madman, he is an assassin.

The only reason he opposes the use of biofules is because he wants to help his friend Chavez.

Once we are able to (finally) reduce our obscene dependency on fossil fuels, people like Chavez, and that tinpot dictator in Iran, will become largely irrelevant.

Then the Middle East will go back to what it was always meant to be....a huge kitty litter box.

Makes me want to go a get a diesel and start running it on french fries oil.

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1989 300TE "Alice"
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Res non semper sunt quae esse videntur

My Gallery

Not in this weather!

Tell us how you feel Ernesto.

I can't wait till all the communists keel over. Only then will I allow my son to visit his motherland.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

if we use hydrogen the exhaust is sweet sweet water...

I thought that loser was dead

You know what's funny? My professor went to Cuba in the early 90's in an attempt at civilian diplomacy. They partied a lot and were entertained by some official people but never got to see Castro.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

China? or Viet-Nam? I forget....

Unless your son is Cuban.

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Current Benzes

1989 300TE "Alice"
1990 300CE "Sam Spade"
1991 300CE "Beowulf" RIP (06.1991 - 10.10.2007)
1998 E320 "Orson"
2002 C320 Wagon "Molly Fox"

Res non semper sunt quae esse videntur

My Gallery

Not in this weather!

Water?!!! That's a primary greenhouse gas!

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Michael LaFleur

'05 E320 CDI - 86,000 miles
'86 300SDL - 360,000 miles
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'89 190D - 120,000 miles (sold)
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'98 ML320 - 270,000 miles (sold)
'75 300D - 170,000 miles (sold)
'83 Harley Davidson FLTC (Broken again) :-(
'61 Plymouth Valiant - 60k mikes
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2005 Tzitzu (Griffon)
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Unfortunately, there is no place we can sink a well and draw up pure hydrogen. Doesn't exist on the planet except in minute traces in the upper atmosphere. The best hope for hydrogen is using wind power electricity to crack it from water but, not sure of the exact numbers, best case scenario is that it could only provide a small fraction of the current BTUs we get from petrol.

The big industry fantasy in using nukes to make it. If we did that to try to substitute for current petro levels, we'd have to bring a new nuke plant online once a week for the next 20 years and we have yet to solve the waste problem, no matter how much safer the actual plant is.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Castro is clearly whacked but unfortunately, what he's saying here is not completely wrong. Corn prices have gone way up in Mexico -- triple or quadruple -- and here in the US, I understand even our relatively small level of current ethanol production is putting pressure on food use of corn.

I don't see beating up our topsoil and running through our already depleted water reserves so we can continue our current ruinous levels of energy use to be a wise move.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Oye Mohito- Let's not forget to add Poutin(sp) into the mix. How about running a diesel conversion on "plantain and churo oil?" Ah the smell--- que rico welley. The shark would spit Castro out...sharks don't eat sh**.

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"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process."
2012 SLK 350
1987 420 SEL

Let's stop making HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup) -- all it is doing is making our population fat (and sick)... we can use the corn for ethanol... until Bush leaves, then we can use Sugar like a smart nation would.

Somewhere in the mix we'll use more Diesel -- but now you're making TOO much sense.

[QUOTE=cmac2012;1464606]Castro is clearly whacked but unfortunately, what he's saying here is not completely wrong. i'll agree.the local ethanol plant that just went online will produce 110 million gallons of ethanol a year,BUT what they don't tell you is that they use something on the order of 10-25 million gallons of water A DAY.then a local farm just sold here.it is located upstream from our lake which has been getting dredged for the last 5-6 years,the land next to the stream was setup in the crp program so it was not farmed to prevent soil erosion,now the new owner says he is not going to renew the crp contract so he can plant more corn.and it was speculated in the news this morning that there will be more acres in corn this year then in 1946 right after ww2.right now in my county here in the corn belt of iowa size 625 square miles.we have an egg plant owned by the taylors of minnesota(owners of the twins,timberwolves)and now the new ethanol plant.between the two of them they will consume every kernal of corn that this county can grow,and just this week the county approved a license for another ethanol plant on the opposite side of the county,so once it gets going we will have to import corn into this county not to mention the water that they are gonna be sucking out of the ground.i believe that eventually it will get to the point that all the ethanol plants are gonna be fighting for the corn and the price is gonna get so high that the smaller plants will go under.then you have the livestock producers,the price of their feed is gonna go up so you can expect massive increases in the price you pay for your beef,pork, chicken,turkey etc.what castro is getting at is we will have significantly less corn to export to other countries that really need it.

. T

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Question Authority before it Questions you.

Castro is a nut case, but he is somewhat correct on corn use for fuel. Being in the meat industry, prices are already on the upswing as a result of corn future prices. This will affect everybody in America. Probably not the world though, because they make their biofuel from non-food stuff, like hemp or quick growing sugar cane.

Meat will go up, tacos will go up, corn dogs will go up, anything made from corn will go up.

Using corn is very misdirected. 30% less energy for 30% more money.

And besides, we have enough easy-to-get oil for at least 140 years. Then there's the sands and shales.

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Thank You!
Fred
2009 ML350
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1996 SL600
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Castro is incorrect. We still pay farm subsidies on corn and farmers to NOT grow it. We are not affecting the food supply by ethanol usage. Now if another country turns their food crop to fuel, thats a problem, but thats not what is happening here.

Ethanol is a fad which will hopefully die out. I predict it will stick around in some form though for its oxygenating capabilities rather than its ability to replace fossil fuels (which it can't anyway).

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