Food vs. fuel

“We need to feed the stomach before we need to feed our cars,” said Rattan Lal, an Ohio State University soil sciences professor. Seems obvious enough. The use of grains to produce fuel for cars has played a large role in the upward surge in food prices. A World Bank study has estimated that corn prices rose by over 60 per cent from 2005-07, mainly due to the U.S. ethanol program combined with market forces.

Joachim von Braun, who heads the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C estimated if we were stop growing grain crops for vehicle consumption and start growing these grains for people consumption then corn prices would fall 20% and wheat prices would go down 10%.

So considering top international food scientists are making the recommendation to feed people first, logic would follow that the U.S. government would be at least calling for the reduction of crops for cars? Nope… never letting a little thing like logic get in the way George W. Bush is calling for the increase of ethanol production and thereby diverting even more grain from the food supply. All in an effort offset the rising price of gasoline.

"And the truth of the matter is, it's in our national interest that our farmers grow energy” said Bush

Food supply instability continues to be an issue for aproximately 1 billion people worldwide.

Reference: Stop biofuels to fight world hunger, food scientists say

Climate Change and Rising Fuel Prices Equals Political Instability and Rising Food Costs Worldwide

John Holmes, the UN’s top humanitarian official, points to a worldwide 40% hike in food prices since mid-2007, as a contributing factor to the protests and clashes over food in Haiti and Egypt. To say that a lack of food causes political instability is nothing new. Starving people have been a catalyst for change many times over history. Up until now however, the food shortages have always been localized.

Rising fuel prices combined with poor crops due to the extreme weather associated with climate change, are giving rise the “perfect storm” of food shortages. The average gas-guzzler driving, slightly chubby North American may not be feeling the pinch yet but if current trends continue we may be very soon.

In Canada, wheat shortages have caused the price of flour to double in the first two months of 2008. "It's a very, very tight situation," said Canadian Wheat Board analyst Bruce Burnett. "World production has been under [its] consumption in the last couple of years, so we have been drawing stocks down … and we've finally hit levels that have made the market very, very concerned about supplies and rightly so."

References:

Soaring food costs threaten world's political stability: UN official
Wheat shortage sends bread, pasta prices soaring