And Pigs Might Fly....

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mawnansmiff

Lifer
Oct 14, 2015
7,681
8,274
Sunny Cornwall, UK.
This is another one of those news stories that made me look at my calendar to check it wasn't April 1st.

I genuinely didn't know animal fats were used for this purpose.

How many dead pigs do you need to fuel an airplane?​

"According to Transport & Environment, a flight from Paris to New York would need fat from 8,800 dead pigs if all the fuel came from animal sources".


I do wonder if this might have religious as well as ethical implications. Would we see printed on boarding passes "This Jet May Be Fuelled By Animal Products" as we see on food items "This Product Might Contain Nuts"?

I wonder if the exhaust has a crispy bacon whiff to it :oops:.

Regards,

Jay.
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,960
14,334
Humansville Missouri
This year the USA will produce about 350 million tons of corn and about 40% of it will be burned up as ethanol motor fuel, and the tailings used to slop hogs.

Imagine starving in some forgotten corner of the earth, knowing the richest nation under the sun burns food in their cars.

And when you hear an old man lambast against welfare and foreign aid, he never protests against Iowa corn farmers getting their share.

I have a client who’s put out a corn crop, and he spent $400 an acre to plant.

He ought to get 200 bushel an acre, and at $6 a bushel he’ll triple his input costs at $1,200. Just don’t try that on borrowed money, or trying to pay for half million dollar combines, or it would take the goody out of it.

My father was a farmer and like most people I have lots of good will and support for our farmers.

Farmers just farm right back up all the money they earn farming anyway, so it all works out in the wash, you know?
 
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mingc

Lifer
Jun 20, 2019
4,238
12,565
The Big Rock Candy Mountains
I genuinely didn't know animal fats were used for this purpose.
Neither did I. I wonder what the price of lard is these days.
Tub-of-lard.jpg
 

augiebd

Lifer
Jul 6, 2019
1,321
2,607
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
It’s always more complicated than it seems on the surface. Creating biofuels from waste sounds like a no-brainer but in reality once the dominoes start to fall you realize it will take a well thought out plan to achieve reasonable goals. That is best case scenario, let’s not waste or pig fat!
 

crusader

Can't Leave
Aug 18, 2014
399
362
Nebraska
This year the USA will produce about 350 million tons of corn and about 40% of it will be burned up as ethanol motor fuel, and the tailings used to slop hogs.

Imagine starving in some forgotten corner of the earth, knowing the richest nation under the sun burns food in their cars.

And when you hear an old man lambast against welfare and foreign aid, he never protests against Iowa corn farmers getting their share.

I have a client who’s put out a corn crop, and he spent $400 an acre to plant.

He ought to get 200 bushel an acre, and at $6 a bushel he’ll triple his input costs at $1,200. Just don’t try that on borrowed money, or trying to pay for half million dollar combines, or it would take the goody out of it.

My father was a farmer and like most people I have lots of good will and support for our farmers.

Farmers just farm right back up all the money they earn farming anyway, so it all works out in the wash, you know?
As comedians are often prophets.
 

bullet08

Lifer
Nov 26, 2018
10,216
41,486
RTP, NC. USA
Remember Operation Eagle Claw? During the planning phase, one of the suggestions was dropping crap load of pigs on the target area. We could have found out if few of them can fly or not. But some smartass shot down that idea.
 

kcghost

Lifer
May 6, 2011
15,141
25,690
77
Olathe, Kansas
This brings a certain poignancy to the phrase "When pigs fly". With aviation fuel coming from dinosaurs and nothing coming from any other source i guess it mean just us carnivores and omnivores will be flying from now on.
 

Arthur Frayn

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jan 8, 2023
200
840
66
Sonoma county, Calif.
We may be putting the cart before the horse. Perhaps it would be better to refrain from unnecessary flights in the first place.

In a sense, jet travel seems like a very wasteful way to amuse oneself.

Raising animals for the specific reason to render their fat seems like a bad idea, somehow.



Let's face it, the flying experience is not what its used to be and can be an unpleasant experience anyway.
 
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Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,960
14,334
Humansville Missouri
The transportation industry needs to think bigger. Why kill so many pigs to fuel jets when the fat from considerably fewer whales would do the job?
It’s humorous now, but once upon a time the well to do used whale oil lamps and the common people rendered lard candles for lighting, until science developed a way to make oil from coal.

Set aside any concerns about climate change and carbon emissions, let’s talk capitalism and money, shall we?

Oil transports the world and electricity lights the world. Where it’s available, natural gas usually beats coal to generate power, and always for heating homes.


I just read today where some big shot oil sheik is whining about $75 a barrel oil.

Oil is a commodity and sells at a world price is US dollars, adjusted for grades and shipping costs.

That Arab oil sheik sits on top of reserves that spout out from the ground, maybe $5 a barrel to produce. All the other oil on earth costs many times more to extract, average about $50 a barrel.

If the entire world stopped exploring for oil tomorrow, there is about fifty years of proven reserves.


The holy grail of energy is cold fusion.

The great grandsons of the oil sheiks would go back to being desert nomads, if cold fusion is successful.

But until then, every windmill and solar panel and geothermal and hydro and nuclear power plant extends the life of oil reserves.

The world is also going to burn coal, less and less each year. The same reason you don’t have a coal furnace in your home will eventually mean coal, is doomed for power generation.

Coal is dirty, and it has to be shoveled.

A Nat Gas plant fires up by turning a valve.
 
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