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Jim Letourneau's Blog

Retired Life

Investing, Technology, Travel, Geology, Music, Golf. I think that covers it.

No Tofu for You

Former Microsoft executive, Martin Tobias, has the following quote attributed it to him on Starbucks "to go" cup #234:

"How have we become so addicted to petroleum oil? How would the world be different if we could make all our own fuel in our own country? For the last two years I have driven to work on soybeans. This is possible in our lifetime."

The quote starts of with a linguistic boo boo (petra=rock, oleum=oil, oil=oil). This is followed by a self-serving isolationist statement favoring "home grown" fuel (Martin Tobias is involved with Imperium Renewables which is in the process of a US$345 million IPO).

I think that it is pretty cool that people can drive to work using soybean oil but I don't know what impact that will have on vegetable oil markets etc. As my son Darcy said "Wow that's alot of soybeans".

At least people are starting to consider the true cost of petroleum from the Middle East. Against a backdrop of rising energy costs, there will be numerous alternatives that make sense.

Its a great time to be North American farmer.