Thread: $400 a Gallon Afghan Diesel Replaced by Heroin

Interesting article in the March 2011 copy of "Atlantic" magazine, about using the poppy fields in Afghanistan to make bio-diesel. When the US Military is spending up to $400 a gallon to provide diesel to forward bases, this bio-diesel can be made for less than $10 a gallon. Best of all, Afghan farmers could be paid better, heroin would be taken off the market and our military costs could be lowered.

Fighting global warming and the war on drugs: The potential to use opium poppies as biofuel feedstock in Afghanistan Biofuels and Bio-Based Carbon Mitigation

Fighting global warming and the war on drugs: The potential to use opium poppies as biofuel feedstock in Afghanistan
By Sean Killian

Afghanistan accounts for roughly 93 percent of the world’s total poppy production, and converts 90 per cent of its 8,000 tons of raw opium into heroin. In recent years, bilateral and multilateral aid projects have spend billions of dollars on “alternative development” projects aimed at moving farming communities from growing opium poppy to growing licit crops. Nevertheless, and despite a recent contraction in output, opium production remains high in part because few licit crops fetch the same farm-gate price. One alternative use for opium poppy, which yields roughly the same level of oil as rapeseed, is use as a biofuel feedstock. This paper examines the potential domestic and regional market for poppy-based biodiesel, the price at which poppy-based biodiesel would need to sell, and the role multilateral and bilateral aid might need to play.

Originally Posted by Commodore

Wouldn't the goal be to teach the farmers to grow something they can eat?

It is a cash crop. Like cotton, or soybeans, or corn. They grow it to make money. And like most farmers, still grow food as well. Yeah, they can mulittask, as we did when I was growing up on a cotton farm.