Biofuels fueling food crisis... This has to stop.

"Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.

The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.
Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.
"It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House," said one yesterday." LINK

Biofuel is leading to hunger for the poor of the world, what the hell is Barrack Obama thinking?

I don't think he's thinking this through. There's something seriously wrong with a Democrat when I'm thinking that McCain has a better grasp on an issue. I mean, what's so hard about "Let's not use food to run our cars, because those people are starving, and that would be evil?"

Obama
"Mr. Obama was in the midst of a campaign swing through the state where he would eventually register his first caucus victory. And as befits a senator from Illinois, the country’s second largest corn-producing state, he delivered a ringing endorsement of ethanol as an alternative fuel." LINK to NYT article about close relationships between Obama and biofuel industry.

McCain
"Mr. McCain advocates eliminating the multibillion-dollar annual government subsidies that domestic ethanol has long enjoyed. As a free trade advocate, he also opposes the 54-cent-a-gallon tariff that the United States slaps on imports of ethanol made from sugar cane, which packs more of an energy punch than corn-based ethanol and is cheaper to produce."

Tragedy
"The replacement of traditional fuels with biofuels has dragged more than 30 million people worldwide into poverty, an aid agency report says.
Oxfam says so-called green policies in developed countries are contributing to the world's soaring food prices, which hit the poor hardest.
The report's author, Oxfam's biofuel policy adviser Rob Bailey, criticised rich countries for using subsidies and tax breaks to encourage the use of food crops for alternative sources of energy like ethanol.
"If the fuel value for a crop exceeds its food value, then it will be used for fuel instead," he said.
"Rich countries... are making climate change worse, not better, they are stealing crops and land away from food production, and they are destroying millions of livelihoods in the process."
One UN adviser went as far as describing biofuels as a "crime against humanity". LINK

Ok, someone forgot to take their happy pills today. I can't believe this is an AP article!

"Everything seemingly is spinning out of control
By ALAN FRAM and EILEEN PUTMAN Associated Press Writers

WASHINGTON—Is everything spinning out of control? Midwestern levees are bursting. Polar bears are adrift. Gas prices are skyrocketing. Home values are abysmal. Air fares, college tuition and health care border on unaffordable. Wars without end rage in Iraq, Afghanistan and against terrorism.
...Recent natural disasters around the world dwarf anything afflicting the U.S. Consider that more than 69,000 people died in the China earthquake, and that 78,000 were killed and 56,000 missing from the Myanmar cyclone.
Americans need do no more than check the weather, look in their wallets or turn on the news for their daily reality check on a world gone haywire.
Floods engulf Midwestern river towns. Is it global warming, the gradual degradation of a planet's weather that man seems powerless to stop or just a freakish late-spring deluge?
It hardly matters to those in the path. Just ask the people of New Orleans who survived Hurricane Katrina. They are living in a city where, 1,000 days after the storm, entire neighborhoods remain abandoned, a national embarrassment that evokes disbelief from visitors.
Food is becoming scarcer and more expensive on a worldwide scale, due to increased consumption in growing countries such as China and India and rising fuel costs. That can-do solution to energy needs—turning corn into fuel—is sapping fields of plenty once devoted to crops that people need to eat. Shortages have sparked riots. In the U.S., rice prices tripled and some stores rationed the staple.
Residents of the nation's capital and its suburbs repeatedly lose power for extended periods as mere thunderstorms rumble through. In California, leaders warn people to use less water in the unrelenting drought. " LINK

Silent Spring, here, now.

Heartbreaking story, and another reason to eat local. I just saw the documentary Winged Migration, and my (already huge) appreciation of birds has, to put it cheesily, soared. To think that they are being poisoned so we can have Chilean grapes or whatever is awful. So I'm going to redouble efforts to check where produce comes from.

"The number of migratory songbirds returning to North America has gone into sharp decline due to the unregulated use of highly toxic pesticides and other chemicals across Latin America.

Ornithologists blame the demand for out-of-season fruit and vegetables and other crops in North America and Europe for the destruction of tens of millions of passerine birds. By some counts, half of the songbirds that warbled across America's skies only 40 years ago have gone, wiped out by pesticides or loss of habitat.

Ornithologists say another silent spring is dawning across the US as birds are being poisoned by toxic chemicals or killed as pests in their winter refuges across South and Central America as well as the Caribbean. They say that many species of songbird will never recover, and others may even become endangered or extinct if controls are not put in place or consumer habits changed.

More problems await those birds which make it home. Millions of acres of wilderness the birds use as nesting grounds have been ploughed under in the drive to grow corn for ethanol, for bio-fuel. " LINK

Rice riots soon?

"Across Asia the suddenly stratospheric rice prices have prompted countries to ban exports amid fears that shortages could provoke food riots.

While prices of wheat, corn and other agricultural commodities have surged since the end of 2006, partly because of extra demand for biofuels to offset rising oil prices, rice held fairly steady.

However, prices for the staple food of about 2.5 billion Asian people rocketed two months ago. Thai rice, the global benchmark, which was quoted at just below $400 (£200) a tonne in January rose to $760 (£380) last week.

Aware that shortages of such a vital staple could spell trouble at home, Asian governments have moved to ensure their people get enough to eat at a price they could afford, an insurance policy which has in turn raised prices further."
LINK

Hey, speaking of high oil and gas prices, what will ehtanol do for us today? Oh, kill the Gulf of Mexico? Fill 'er up!

"Increasing production of corn-based ethanol to meet alternative fuel goals will worsen the "dead zone" that plagues the Gulf of Mexico, according to a new study that adds to the growing list of concerns over the fuel...

Previous research has shown that corn, one of the three staple crops grown on U.S. croplands, accounts for the bulk of the nitrogen pollution that fuels the dead zone, said study leader Simon Donner of the University of British Columbia...

..."This biofuels policy, particularly the fact that they're stressing corn, is just a death knell for efforts to mitigate the Gulf of Mexico problem."

Studies have shown that producing ethanol could consume more energy than the fuel creates, strain water resources, and possibly pose a threat to public health." LINK to article about dead zone and corn based ethanol crops

And don't forget the food riots!

More problems with biofuels.

"In 2005, America used 15% of its corn crop to replace just 2% of its gasoline. Two new studies say use of biofuels will leave the world a warmer and hungrier place.
We are witnessing the beginnings of one of the great tragedies of history," Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, said in a written statement. "The United States, in a misguided effort to reduce its oil insecurity by converting grain into fuel for cars, is generating global food insecurity on a scale never seen before."" LINK

More state vs. state water fights- and not the fun kind with squirt guns.

Increased production of corn for biofuel is leading to an increase in tension among the states who share the vast (and rapidly shrinking) Ogalalla aquifer. Legal battles have been going on for years, but the new crisis brought on by the increased irrigation for the corn to make ethanol is leading to direct Hatfield-McCoy strife between neighbors.

"To be sure, scientists have been watching the depletion of the Ogallala for decades. Years of drought haven't helped either. But the corn-based ethanol boom has added pressure, and money, to keep the tap on. So to save the river and their water, Adamson and a group of surface water-right holders sued in 2005 to shut off the wells. A hearing is set for June. If they win, hundreds, maybe thousands of groundwater wells irrigating corn could be shut off instantly. "It would devastate the economy," says Doug Sanderson, the city manager of Yuma, the county seat."
LINK

Awful.

People eating dirt in Haiti

So, there are food riots in Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen, Mexico and Indonesia, but damn, this is awful.



"Yolen Jeunky, 45, collects dried mud cookies to sell in Cite Soleil in Port-au-Prince on Nov. 29, 2007. Rising prices and food shortages threaten the nation's fragile stability, and the mud cookies are one of very few options the poorest people have to stave off hunger.

Food prices around the world have spiked because of higher oil prices, needed for fertilizer, irrigation and transportation. Prices for basic ingredients such as corn and wheat are also up sharply, and the increasing global demand for biofuels is pressuring food markets as well.

The problem is particularly dire in the Caribbean, where island nations depend on imports and food prices are up 40 percent in places.

...cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal.
"When my mother does not cook anything, I have to eat them three times a day," Dumas said.

A reporter sampling a cookie found that it had a smooth consistency and sucked all the moisture out of the mouth as soon as it touched the tongue. For hours, an unpleasant taste of dirt lingered."
LINK

Biofuels and ethics...

Pretty intense article about increases in the cost of food, the ethics of biofuel, and the real life day to day impact of the food crisis. Great read.

"And, as a result of the vast tracts of farmland now being given over to corn for ethanol production, the price has risen sharply. Hence the tortilla riots in Mexico, last summer, over the price rise in the corn flour that makes the pancakes. Some claim that there is now a war between the 850 million chronically hungry of the world and the 800 million motorists - all fighting for the same food crop. It's a pretty unbalanced battle: the maize to fill a tank for a 'Chelsea tractor' would feed a family of four for three months. In October the United Nations' spokesman on famine, Jean Ziegler, called the biofuel boom 'a crime against humanity'. And as the Economist magazine recently noted: 'The 30 million tonnes of extra corn going to ethanol this year amounts to half the fall in the world's overall grain stocks.'

Last week, after a mass protest at the price of soya beans in Indonesia (which rose because of the shortage of corn and other crops to supply the biofuel industry), Ashok Gulati, director at the International Food Policy Research Institute said: 'It's finally a trade-off between filling stomachs and filling diesel tanks in cars and trucks.'"

LINK

Rush to produce corn ethanol leading to fertilizer shortages

"A Saskatoon commodity analyst says a large number of farmers planting corn for the ethanol market could put a strain on the fertilizer supply for Prairie farmers this spring.

Larry Weber says farmers are planting record amounts of corn, which has created an unprecedented demand for fertilizer.

That could result in a shortage in Western Canada, he said.

"It's going to be very difficult, if you haven't already purchased fertilizer yet, going forward, to buy fertilizer," Weber said." LINK

Increased ethanol production > major disaster here in the US. What about the rest of the world? Who cares?

Well, I've written about the horrible side effects of increased ethanol production (tortilla crisis)- maybe before we all jump on the bandwagon and invest in corn>fuel technologies, maybe the idea of making food cost more so we can continue living our energy-glutton lifestyles should make us think twice. But so far, it's just been impoverished people in a country we as a nation treat badly anyway. But now- eggs. Chicken. Bacon. Sody-pop.

Food will become more expensive here. Maybe that jolt will be enough for people to start thinking not only how to continue our current lifestyles but how to maybe actually change our daily lives so that we're not the nastiest pigs in the sty.

"The rising food costs fueled by ethanol demand are also affecting U.S. consumers. All things that use corn are going to have higher prices and higher cost. The impact of this is being felt first in animal feed, particularly poultry and pork. Poultry feed is about two-thirds corn; as a result, the cost to produce poultry--both meat and eggs--has already risen about 15 percent due to corn prices, says Tyner. Also expect corn syrup--used in soft drinks--to get more expensive, he says.

The situation will only get worse, says David Pimentel, a professor in the department of entomology at Cornell University. "We have over a hundred different ethanol plants under construction now, so the situation is going to get desperate," he says. Adding to the worries about corn-related food prices is President Bush's ambitious goal, announced in his last State of the Union address, that the United States will produce 35 billion gallons of ethanol by 2017.

Still, some suggest that the overheated ethanol market could soon cool down. "Politicians will see that, first of all, it is not helping our oil independence," says Pimentel. "It is increasing the price of food for people in the U.S., it is costing an enormous sum of money for everyone, and it is contributing to environmental problems. But I can imagine it is going to take another year or more before politicians realize they have a major disaster on their hands."
LINK

Another green fuel leading to ecological disaster.

"Rising demand for palm oil in Europe brought about the clearing of huge tracts of Southeast Asian rainforest and the overuse of chemical fertilizer there.

Worse still, the scientists said, space for the expanding palm plantations was often created by draining and burning peatland, which sent huge amounts of carbon emissions into the atmosphere. "
LINK

It looks like it's going to take a while to sort all this out.

tortilla crisis draws 75,000 protesters

"Some 75,000 unionists, farmers and leftists marched to protest price increases in basic foodstuffs like tortillas, a direct challenge to the new president's market-oriented economic policies blamed by some for widening the gulf between rich and poor. "

Ethics of Ethanol. Ethanol = less fossil fuels > good. Ethanol = ramen for the poor > bad.

Wow. These are some interesting numbers- and scary too. It may be an urban legend, but the story of the student who ate ramen for a year and died isn't that improbable- there is nothing good for you in ramen.

"The tortilla-making process, Gálvez said, releases antioxidants and niacin, which allows them to be absorbed by the body, and the membranes on each corn kernel provide important dietary fiber. As a result of eating tortillas, Mexican children have a very low incidence of rickets, a bone disease caused by calcium deficiency that is common in developing countries.

Gálvez said she believes the price increase is already steering Mexicans toward less nutritious foods. The typical Mexican family of four consumes about one kilo -- 2.2 pounds -- of tortillas each day. In some areas of Mexico, the price per kilo has risen from 63 cents a year ago to between $1.36 and $1.81 earlier this month.

With a minimum wage of $4.60 a day, Mexican families with one wage earner have been faced in recent months with the choice of having to spend as much as a third of their income on tortillas -- or eating less or switching to cheaper alternatives.

Many poor Mexicans, Gálvez said, have been substituting cheap instant noodles, which often sell for as little as 27 cents a cup and are loaded with less nutritious starch and sodium. "LINK

The great corn rush

I hope against all hope that all this new corn is being grown in a sustainable manner, but I so doubt it. I bet they're fertilizing it (using petroleum byproducts), using pesticides to protect it, I bet it's GM, and I bet it's irrigated. Dust bowl 2030, baby! Humans just don't learn, do we? Already, corn prices are leading to increases in the prices of tortillas in Mexico that poor can't afford. Hey, let's burn food to drive our cars! What, you have a problem with that? Well, we could invade Iran for more oil, or burn food- what do you want?

"“Producing 35 billion gallons of ethanol a year would require putting an additional 129,000 square miles of farmland — an area the size of Kansas and Iowa — into corn production, which is not very likely,” said Philip E. Clapp, president of the National Environmental Trust.

Increased demand for corn from ethanol is already straining supplies and pushing prices higher. Corn futures prices recently topped $4 a bushel, the highest price in a decade, raising production costs for livestock producers. The Department of Agriculture earlier this month forecast that by the time this year’s harvest is ready in August, corn in storage will have dwindled to a three-week supply — the lowest level in a decade." LINK

Ethanol- yay! Rising corn prices leading to people unable to afford food? Not good. Tricky.

"Growing U.S. demand for corn-based ethanol has led the grain to its highest prices in 10 years and pushed up costs south of the border for tortillas, the thin, flat corn patties that accompany almost every Mexican meal.
“If this goes on, there will be shortages,” said Mexico City tortilla vendor Margarita Pineda, by a price chart with a new “10 peso” tag stuck on it. “Those with less money won't eat.” " LINK

Switchgrass study- ethanol at $1 per gallon? Go URI!

Well, I might be biased (in the interest of full disclosure, someone I call kin is involved in this project) but this is an exciting development.
"“Switchgrass is a native plant of the tall grass prairies. It grows 12 feet tall in one season and produces 10 tons of plant material an acre, more biomass per year than most other plants,” said Albert Kausch, a University of Rhode Island plant geneticist on the cutting edge of switchgrass research. “I’m confident my lab can make it produce 20 tons an acre using the tools and personnel we have right now.” And because switchgrass is a perennial plant, it doesn’t require replanting year after year."
LINK

Something lovely and quite positive- go pond scum, go!

Algae! Yay!
Seriously, this is very very cool. Research into using algae as a source for biofuels is proving very productive-
""Soybeans can give you 50 to 60 gallons of oil an acre compared to 75 to 125 gallons for canola, but algae is almost limitless because it grows so fast, so potentially you could get 10,000 gallons per acre." And while plants require a lot of fuel to sow and harvest and additional fertilizer and fresh water to nourish, algae can be continuously harvested from closed water-based bioreactors that require little additional replenishment other than inorganic fuel supplied in the form of waste gas."
LINK