Herself's Recipes

The 2005 Energy Policy Act requires that 5% of US gasoline needs come from renewable fuels by 2012. We now have 116 working ethanol plants and 79 plants in various stages of construction. Ethanol production is expected to double to 11 billion gallons by year end.

Ethanol plants are expected to use 139 million tons of corn from the ’08 crop. Farmers have produced the third largest crop ever, 10.7 billion bushels. 20% of last year’s crop went to ethanol production making up 1% of the US fuel needs. Corn fields are now replacing other crops as corn becomes more profitable rising to $4.20/bushel double what it was earlier this year, but still behind 1996′s $5/bushel. This has allowed farm subsidies to drop from 20 billion in ’06 to an expected 13 billion in ’07.

Corn production is expected to rise 8% this year with an additional 85 million acres to be planted. The rising prices are pushing out the planting of other crops, soybean prices have already risen 41% and meat prices are expected to rise at least 6% to cover loses being sustained now.

The US food supply was made up of 15% corn products in the 1950s and 1960s. This dropped to 11% in the 1970s and then rose to 17% in the 1980s and to 22% in the 1990s.

An average American spends 10% of his/her income on food down from 15% in the 1970s, 20% in the 1950s, and 25% in the 1930s. Costs are expected to climb. Also the rising price of fuel will be added to the cost of shipping food and ultimately to the consumer.

Bottled water consumption has doubled since 2000.

It takes 1.5 million barrels of oil each year to create the bottles to hold all our bottled water. This is enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars for one year. Only 20% of water bottles are recycled in the U.S. The plastic containers are made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) which has been determined safe by FDA for use as food containers. Bottled water contains more antimony than tap water. The longer the water sits in a bottle the more antimony it contains. It has to do with a reaction from the container. Still it is well below safe levels.

Tap water is just as good for you as bottled water. 40% of bottled waters are just tap water with some added ingredients.If you must buy bottled water be sure to read the label.

Bottled water label items:

Artesian, ground, spring, well water: These may or may not be treated, spring is collected as it comes to the surface, the rest of these comes from wells except ground water which may be collected either way.

Distilled water: Steam from boiling water is recondensed then bottled. This kills microbes and removes minerals, but ruins the flavor of the water.

Mineral water: Ground water containing 250 ppm of dissolved solids.

Purified: Water that is free of chemicals, no more than 10 ppm of dissolved solids.

Sterile water: Free of all microbes.

Glacier water, mountain water: This has no meaning, these are just marketing terms.

Micron filtration: Water filtered through screens with small holes to filter out microbes and chemicals.

Ozonation: Water is distilled using ozone to kill microbes.

Reverse osmosis: Water is forced under pressure through membrane removing all microbes, minerals, and chemicals.

Ultraviolet light: Water is passed through uv light killing most microbes.