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Biofuels are starving the people



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The skyrocketing cost of food is causing unrest around the world. Last Saturday, Haitians ousted their prime minister, Jacques-Édouard Alexis, following a week of rioting over staple costs. In the Philippines, where the price of rice has doubled since January, the president banned using farmland for any purpose other than food production. Even Italians staged a day-long pasta protest last September when wheat prices jumped.

In the course of a year grain costs have surged by 31% for corn, 74% for rice, 87% for soya, and 130% for wheat, according to the United Nations. Compounding the problem, global grain stores are at a historic low and prices are expected to continue to rise and remain high for the foreseeable future. In response to the growing crisis, the World Food Programme, which feeds some 73 million people, appealed last month for $500 million in funds, the amount it is short this year due to the spike in food prices. And this week, UNESCO released a report that concludes an overhaul of modern agriculture is imminent.

“We estimate that a doubling of food prices over the last three years could potentially push 100 million people in low-income countries deeper into poverty,” World Bank president Robert Zoellick said.

“In this case, the international community has to think about what is the biggest risk in the short run and to make a correct balance between production of biofuel from food stuffs and biofuel coming from nonfood stuffs,” IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said during a press conference in DC last Sunday at the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank April 12-13.
leahl

20 responses // Biofuels are starving the people

  • I empathize for the people struggling to cope with these prices. But I can't help but wonder, are biofuels really the only cause for these spikes in price? I don't see enough biofueled vehicles on the road to suggest that they, and they alone, are to blame for such outrageous prices for corn, soya, wheat, and rice. Perhaps an outside force such as rising gas prices, which correlates with the crisis in the Middle East, are equally responsible. And we all know who is responsible for the crisis in the Middle East, spiking these prices.
    guntown_kid82
  • guntown, you don't need to have millions of biofueled vehicles on the road to get a cause-and-effect relationship.....

    all it takes is a government mandate and large subsidies to farmers to tremendously change the mix of what they're growing TODAY, in hopes and preparation for the huge assumed market in biofuels, to change the balance of agriculture.

    farms that grew soybeans and wheat are/were converted to corn. and corn is a lousy biofuels source, as people are beginning to admit now.

    then it creates a domino effect throughout the world markets.

    for example, there were food strikes, riots and demonstrations in Mexico many months ago and now in Egypt and many other countries, as first the price of corn, a staple of the Mexican diet, went through the roof.

    but you can't turn around a government-mismanaged market overnight. those crops will take another year at least to be replanted with what the worlds' markets AND PEOPLE want and need.

    if you want lower gasoline prices, there are only two ways to get 'em:

    1) cut consumption, which isn't going to happen unless we have an immigration and population decrease, and
    2) drill more holes in the ANWR and continental US and in the continental shelf and LIFT MORE SUPPLIES for the market.

    if you want solar, bio, and conservation, if you can't implement those solutions IMMEDIATELY, you MUST suffer through ALL of the time until they finally have a REAL effect.

    so if you want those "solutions" you have to get everyone in the USA to stop complaining about gasoline prices for a few years... maybe 10 or 25....

    enjoy THAT battle...

    me? i'm for drilling for oil, anywhere and everywhere.

    and don't give me the "it's not safe" stuff.... technology improves; beliefs don't change.
    plusaf
  • People, we must band together to halt biofuels. Period.
    Julie_Soller
  • @adft, you need to look at recent reports from countries which have suspended their food and grain exports as a result of the agricultural shifts you don't seem to know have happened....
    plusaf
  • Julie_Soller, I'm all for ten dollars a gallon gas in the US too.
    jinkies
  • The thing is, the process of turning corn into ethanol is about as emissive as gas emissions. With that in mind, corn is definitely better used as food, not to mention delicious.
    Adumbration
  • http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070501faessay86305/c-fo...
    i saw this coming a few years ago as soon as they started producing soy in Brazil. i decided to talk to a friend (a conspiracy theorist) about this, just to gain a different perspective even if it be humorous. when i asked him what he thought, he said that biofuels would not only hurt our economy but also give opportunities to other countries to royally f@#k with us anyway they want. you know, it might be the word of a fool, but it potentially has credence. if you rise the price of corn by even 1$ globally then you marginalize the people in parts of the world that live off only about 2$ a day, which the world bank estimated back 2001 consisted of about 2.7 billion people. logic can tell you that this is not a good idea and much to my surprise a lot of people have worried about this very same problem (link below). however, we are not at a point yet that this has become irreversible, so can't say if we're in direct danger of a 'food bomb' yet from the commies. (last little bit was a joke)
    redryan
  • Well, I don't agree with the headline of this piece, but I feel it's important nonetheless. Biofuels and their related use of farmland are not the major contributor to rising food costs - the cost of fuel used for transporting our food is!

    So, what can we do to solve that problem?

    Obviously biofuels are not the answer - it's like a dog chasing it's own tail.

    Rather than changing what we use for fuel, how about simply using less fuel by growing food closer to where it's consumed and placing tighter regulations on the import/export of food?

    When it comes to essential goods like food, the "global economy" model is simply not sustainable.
    digitrash
  • I don't necessarily think biofuels are the sole reason for the food shortage, but as I said in another post: when are people going to learn consuming less is the key rather than finding more options for fuel.

    More money needs to put toward conservation efforts and less toward finding more fuel options.
    djknockout
  • there's too many people on too little space consuming too much.

    We need to control our mating habits and what we take out and put into the Earth. We have to work with the planet we live on instead of trying to control and manipulate it.
    ILiveonaClock
  • We totally need to stop feeding so much grain to our livestock, and start using it as food for humans, the only reason so much grain is being used is because it gets livestock fat, fast. but the cost of meat is much higher than corn, what we need is less meat more corn. I love meat don't get me wrong, but times are tough and we all have to sacrifice and start eating things we can abundantly grow for a fairly cheap price.
    justwannafindmytrue
  • we're pretty much all F*CKED
    furryjenn
  • Does the WTO have anything to do with influencing what is growing today?

    See, if we are going to have a picture of the corn cob being shoved down the gas tank opening, then all you have is a knee-jerk response by a energy interest that is interested in maintaining the status quo of the oil industry supplying all our energy needs, without the interference of the alternate fuel industry.

    Say....are we getting ready for a war between big oil and the alternate energy industry?

    Is controlling my mating habits, manipulating the globe? It may be that the main cause of our jobs being sent abroad is because we really don't have enough people to man the work.
    cadsuch
  • Thanks plusaf.

    Our world is in a constant state of change and it's our job to do the best with what we have, and hope others are able to do the same. People were starving before bio fuel- it's awful but true. No one should go hungry, our world mind set is slowly but surely changing around to look at our neighbor and see what we can do to help.
    SelmaA
  • THIS IS A SAD SITUATION WHICH SHOWS HOW TWISTED OUR PRIORTIES ARE!
    jrock108
  • Hi,

    The absolute truth behind situations such as these is actually easy to find and unfortunately very sad. The global food situation is a result of access, not supply. There is plenty of food to feed the world 100 times over. There are also many people who make decisions solely based on profit and they are often the ones who make decisions that have far reaching global economic and political impact.

    The global food situation is entirely the result of the following:

    1. Large corporate agribusiness controlling markets via price manipulation

    2. Government subsidies that present themselves as farm support but are really business support

    3. The business of food - presently for every $1 spent on food in the capitalized world, less than $.05 goes to farmers. The rest goes to marketing, manufacturing, packaging, and shipping

    4. International food markets displacing local autonomous food production

    5. Food marketed for profit, not nutrition and sustenance


    These are the major factors that shape the world's relationship to food. It is no mystery. All of the information is out there. It is not conspiracy theory. Regardless of political ideology it is simply the way things are.

    If you find this intriguing, I recommend the following resources as a good place to start for further information:

    Books:
    1. The Politics of Food, Marion Nestle
    2. Diet for a Dead Planet, Christopher Cook
    3. Stolen Harvest, Vandana Shiva

    Movies
    1. The Future of Food, Deborah Koons Garcia

    Podcasts
    1. What We're Eating and What's Eating Us, Ari Derfel on America the Green
    ariderfel
  • I can't begin to know what is driving food costs up, whether it's fuel costs to get food from here to there, or manufacturing/farming costs or what. What I do know is that the impact is being felt everywhere. I live in the Bay Area of California and food costs are sky-rocketing - nearly $5 for one loaf of bread, over $4 for one dozen eggs, over $4 for one gallon of milk...and the produce my grocery store has doesn't look so wonderful - very sad celery, questionable green beans...I'd love to buy locally, but there aren't any farms near where I live. I don't know the answers, but I'm hoping there will be some sometime from someone.
    LindaBusiness
  • http://current.com/items/89062604_biofuels_don_t_get_an...
    Hey Look! A man who knows what he's talking about!!
    eli_redsnail

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