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Biofuels to blame for 75 per cent increase in price of food
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by Paul Conneally | July 4, 2008 at 08:10 am
476 views | 15 Recommendations | 9 comments
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Rushing into change without thinking out the consequences is never a good idea. Here we what at first seems a great environmental idea leading to food shortages and hikes in prices. I suppose it's just common sense that if we turn over our crops to making fuel rather than being eaten it will lead to food shortages.
The rise is far greater than previous estimates including a US Government claim that plant-derived fuels contribute less than three per cent to food price hikes.
According to reports last night, a confidential World Bank document indicates the true extent of the effect of biofuels on prices at a crucial time in the world's negotiations on biofuel policy.
Rising food prices have been blamed for pushing 100 million people beneath the poverty line. The confidential report, based on a detailed economic analysis of the effect of biofuels, will put pressure on the American and European governments, which have turned to biofuels in attempts to reduce the greenhouse gases associated with fossil fuels and to reduce their reliance on oil imports.
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Paul Conneally
Loughborough, Leicestershire, United Kingdom
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (9)
at 08:28 on July 4th, 2008
Coincidentally there was a report issued yesterday by a Canadian think-tank, stating that biofuels from wood waste is a much more reasonable idea.
http://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/commentary_268.pdf
Currently the forests of British Columbia are clogged with wood residue, just crying out to be used. Not to mention all the standing dead timber due to the mountain pine beetle infestation.
At the moment it is not economical for wood products companies to harvest the material, but very soon it will be. There are two processes being researched right now to break down the wood cellulose and transform it into biofuel: gasification and pryolysis (the chemical breakdown of organic material to make a substitute for petroleum).
at 08:34 on July 4th, 2008
Gasification is something I hear might also see the remaining coal stocks coming into play.
at 08:35 on July 4th, 2008
at 09:31 on July 4th, 2008
LotusFlower, I like this story. It's good stuff. I think people are mixing up the high price of petroleum products with the need to reduce our carbon footprint. The use of food crops to produce ethanol is a false economy because the crops require tilling and fertilizing on a massive scale. If we ferment wood chips for fuel (those that the pulp mills aren't crying for) then we are still producing greenhouse gases. Methane is a worse greenhouse gas than CO2. The answer is reduce, reduce, reduce.
at 10:16 on July 4th, 2008
Not to mention the added carbon footprint if that dead wood on the forest floor is simply allowed to rot away!
(although a certain portion must remain behind to allow for nutrients to leach back into the soil for future forest growth).
at 10:44 on July 4th, 2008
LotusFlower, thanks for this. Such an interesting story. Good stuff.
at 12:24 on July 4th, 2008
I question blaming the price of food on biofuels. I think it's propaganda being promoted by the oil companies. The price of food is rising in proportion with the cost of oil and dinofuels. Very little of the world's food crops are being used yet for biofuels. There continues to be surplus food products sitting in farmers' yards, granaries and shipping yards, delayed from being delivered where there is a need due to the logistics of transporting them. It's very expensive to transport goods these days because of the price of oil.
The price of oil not only drives up the cost of fuel, but paint, plastic, and many other lesser goods including fabrics which are derived from it. The cost of delivering goods and services is driven up by the cost of fuel also, so that higher prices and wages are demanded. The overhead of heating, cooling, and electrifying a business location is also driven up. This higher cost of doing business is passed on to the consumer who in turn demands higher wages. Higher wages increase business costs, which again are passed to the consumer. The cycle of inflation is thus perpetuated and the increased cost of living shows up in such things as higher food costs.
It's far too simple and devious to say biofuel is wasting food crops and driving up food prices. Farmers sell their product the same as anyone else, to the highest bidder. Biofuels actually cost a consumer more than conventional dinofuels. Biofuels seriously threaten the profits of the oil companies, it is very much in their interest to discredit and discourage the industry of biofuel in any way possible, honest or otherwise.
at 13:31 on July 4th, 2008
thanks for the interesting perspective anarkissed
at 15:04 on July 4th, 2008
Anarkissed is right. Price of fuel is driving food prices higher.