We're glad you decided to come.

BidForGreen is your source for green news and blogs, and of course, the latest on biofuels and biodiesel.

We hope that you will make us your destination to start a new blog. New to the green thing? Skeptical? Let us know. We want all kinds of voices.

Our Chief Design Genius, Paul Edge, made all of this possible. He is featured as a dj in an upcoming episode of CSI (a BidForGreen client - Go Biodiesel!), so be sure to tune in on October 30 to see Paul in his theatrical debut.

Plenty more here, but you've got other things to do.

Please explore.

Jean Ziegler of the United Nation’s Right to Food Program has claimed that biofuels are a crime against humanity. Ziegler has called for a global five year moratorium on the production of biofuels to avert what he is calling a growing "catastrophe" for the poor. He has also been quoted as claiming that within those five years "it will be possible to make biofuel and biodiesel from agricultural waste'' rather than wheat, corn, sugar cane and other food crops".

For a start, today’s biodiesel boom was jump started by the soybean growers associations. They needed to help find new ways to use the waste product soybean oil. Soybeans are generally crushed and the meal or cake is used for many products including livestock feed. The crushers of soybean in the US had a glut of soybean oil. Other feedstock for biodiesel includes waste vegetable oil, and yellow grease. Thus making biodiesel pretty much non-competitive with the dinner table.

In the US, ethanol is currently being produced from corn crops. Many farmers have put in extra acres of land in corn in hopes of making a bit of a profit for a change with such a strong market for corn. However, before you go trying to throw American corn and ethanol producers under the bus, let's look at the root of the problem, and it is not biofuel production.

A terribly weak dollar has made for a rough ride economically in the US for everybody. Crude oil at nearly $120.00 a barrel has made all the inputs for farming shoot through the roof. Hell, if it was not for biofuels there would be a lot less land in any production this year. Mr. Ziegler should be on his knees thanking God that biofuels production is where it is at or we would really be hitting the wall of a food crisis.

Let’s also talk of decades’ worth of bad international economic and agricultural policy. The industrial world has moved the rest of the world towards growing for western markets and away from building local markets to feed the people where they are. These kinds of policies have had devastating affects on global agriculture and have resulted in moving thousands upon thousands of people from rural agricultural lifestyles to adding to the already staggering number of urban poor world wide.

So instead of trashing biofuels and those who are truly helping make the world a better place by producing them. Let’s start a dialogue about the real culprits plaguing the poor around the world in a way that can actually fix some problems. Instead of encouraging agribusiness we push agriculture.

It simply does not matter how you cook it, you cannot eat cash. Help build national sustainable agriculture in every corner of the world, encouraging biofuels production for local markets. This should be our number one priority. If we want to solve the hunger problem in the world we start by building local agricultural markets and we build from there.

We cannot sacrifice what is good for what is perfect. Is corn-based ethanol a silver bullet for the world’s energy needs? No, but it is also not the culprit in any food crisis we might be facing. Corn ethanol is a step in the right direction it is , however, up to us to keep our feet on the right path to a more sustainable future based on healthy agricultural practices to supply food and fuel everyone.

Over the next few weeks, BidForGreen is proud to bring you a new series of blogs entitled, "Unexplored Connections." This series will spotlight the nexus between religion and the environment. We have some exciting writers, some of them known to you, some new names. And if you feel like sending us something, please submit an inquiry online. We'd love to consider it!

In our 24-hour news cycle, hype sells. In our opinion, that's what you got last week, when listening to the reporting on biofuels and their carbon footprint.

What did they leave out?

1. People need soybeans for other purposes. Soybean meal is a highly prized animal feed. What is used for biodiesel, in most cases, is actually just a high-priced byproduct. People don't plant soybeans just for biodiesel. Therefore, even for those acres, that by-product nature must be considered.

2. No mention of waste product biodiesel. Beef. Chicken. Pork. Waste Veggie. These are true, sustainable sources of biodiesel feedstock. You wouldn't know if from the coverage.

3. Carbon is emitted all the time. That's natural. It's sequestered and released every moment. What we have done that is unnatural is to upset the equation by going back millions of years and releasing carbon that the earth was not expecting. But releasing carbon from "current" sources is a natural process and is quite different than from fossil fuels. No one seems to make that connection.

Now, our company and our associates have been carrying the sustainable biofuels banner for longer than Brian Williams could pronounce the words. We are all for responsible use of land, and that is possible. Anyone cutting down rainforest for any purpose is cruisin' for a bruisin' with us. But to somehow throw out less than half of the story and call it a breakthrough, brother, that just ain't right.

Ever notice how more often than not, folks tend to refer to nature as a thing they are apart from rather than a part of? I am talking about both sides of most environmental arguments here. For people on the political right the environment tends to be something that must promote the making of money in one way or another, an annoyance that tends to be in the way of economic growth and golf courses.

On the left they pray to it as if nature is some benevolent god that must not be trespassed against for any reason. Both sides are flat out wrong as they can be. Human beings are a part of nature; we are part of this great abundant environment called planet earth. On this beautiful ball of mud we call home there are many, many systems. Some systems are man-made: our economic system, political systems, and healthcare systems. Other systems are natural systems or cycles: hydrologic cycle, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle; you get the point.

Regardless of being natural or man-made, they are all connected. They are interdependent. Look at the natural carbon cycle. For centuries as carbon was released from one place, say the burning of wood to keep people warm, it was taken up in another, maybe a peat bog or more forest growth. In the pre-industrial past natural events, such as volcanic eruptions, pumped out excess carbon into the atmosphere.Over time, nature found ways to sequester the extra carbon and remove it from the cycle. Over time, some of the carbon became sequestered in coal, oil, and natural gas.Once we found ways to burn fossil fuels for energy we began working against the natural carbon cycle, by releasing what nature had put away. Due to this imbalance in the natural system there is a change i.e. global climate change to be exact.

I am not here to argue that mankind’s over use of fossil fuel is the lone gunman in the climate change scenario. It appears at this time to be one contributing factor and most likely the only one we have any control over. Global climate change is an example of a natural system out of balance. Another important example is the nitrogen cycle. I live in a part of the US where we have a high concentration of commercial animal feeding operations or CAFOs, especially for poultry. One thing we have been battling for some time is the balance of nitrogen in our soils (I should mention that when I say “soil” I really mean “rocks and red clay”; black dirt is a pretty scarce commodity in these parts). Funny thing about rocks and red clay is that no matter how much nitrogen you apply to it only takes up a finite amount.

Once our local poultry farmers land apply the waste from their birds and the local rocks have absorbed their fair share. One good rainstorm pushes all that excess into the local streams, which promotes massive algae growth and the lovely green tint many of our once beautiful and beneficial streams and rivers now have.

It really is simple folks: If you knock something out of balance, it is going to strive to regain its equilibrium. Until it does, other systems will be negatively impacted and thrown out of balance as well. We all must understand we have a place within nature. We do not exist separate from it. Regardless of your living in a concrete jungle or 100 acres of forested land we each rely completely on the natural systems around us being able to do what they do. Be aware of your part within the natural system, and your impact on them, because believe me, when they stop working you will know their impact on you.