• Increased Biofuel Production Linked with Global Food Shortage

    The World Bank reported that worldwide, food prices have gone up 83% and the developing world is being hit the hardest.  On April 10, Haitians took to the streets demanding the resignation of their president when the price of food staples like rice and beans increased more than 50%.  In addition, in the last few weeks there have been protests related to food in Egypt, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Cameroon.  Developed countries are not immune—in the U.S. food costs increased 4% last year and are expected to rise at the same rate in the coming year.  There is no doubt that this is a complex problem with no easy solution.  Droughts conditions (particularly in Australia, normally one of the world’s largest wheat producers), rising oil prices (making petroleum based fertilizers more expensive) and new food policies discouraging large food reserves all contribute to the food shortage that has led to this world-wide price increase.

    Another factor related to food shortage seems relatively preventable: the move from food production to biofuel production.   Despite the fact that U.S. is one of the world’s top producers of wheat, a staple food throughout much of the world, pressure is growing for many American farmers to switch from crops such as wheat to corn to be used for biofuels. And, this pressure is coming from the government.  In President Bush’s 2007 State of the Union address, Bush called for biofuels to replace 15% of gasoline used in the United States.  In an attempt to pass supposedly environmentally friendly legislation, the US has made it its policy to subsidize biodiesel and ethanol.  As a consequence more and more of the corn, soybeans and palm oil once produced for food as now being produced for biofuel. 

    It seems fairly obvious that the United States needs to rethink its “green” policies if they threaten the food security of the rest of the world.