A ban on plastics…
San Francisco is garnering the world’s attention with their recent ban on plastic grocery bags - the first ban of its kind in the nation.
It was almost three years ago that the city’s Board of Supervisors considered a 17 cent tax on each petroleum-based plastic grocery bag to force supermarkets and drug stores to use alternative materials that would have less of an impact on the environment and landfills. In San Francisco alone, last year there were about 180 million plastic shopping bags distributed — which, according to the San Francisco Department of the Environment and Worldwatch Institute took roughly 774,000 gallons of oil to produce.
It appears that “green” will continue to be big in 2008 with efforts such as this. And, actually it may not be such a bad idea. The world can probably live with a lot less petroleum-based plastic. Look what we’ve done with corn and soybeans in creating alternative fuels, plastics, cleaners, even ink! So perhaps this type of ban will create another boon for an earth-friendly, renewable agricultural product!
Related Topics: Small Producer Challenges
February 1st, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Well, there is another way to look at the ban on plastic bags. If we have to rely on agriculture products to produce alternative fuels and other products, we wont be able to afford the groceries to go in bags. (there will not be a demand for any kind of grocery bag). And as far as being “green” it takes alot of land that will have to be tilled up to plant the corn. (not very earth friendly) It will take alot of oil to produce the fertilizer. The farmers that want to plant other foods instead of corn will not be able to buy the fertilizer to grow them. Fertilizer prices have went up about 40% from fall of last year because of the demand to plant corn. Cattle farmers cannot afford to feed the cattle, poultry farmers cannot afford to feed the chickens, and pork farmers cannot afford to feed the pigs because corn is too expensive and they cannot make a profit. The corn producers are getting a huge price for there corn from the ethanol plants. People will starve to death because of the need for alternative fuel. Unfortunately, we can not have it both ways.
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