As Global Food Costs Rise, Are Biofuels To Blame?
Converting corn and soybeans into fuels is contributing to higher food prices. The dispute is how much.
The biofuels industry plans on producing record amounts of ethanol this year to meet a mandate of the new US energy law - and will need a lot of corn to do it. At the same time, global food prices are at near-peak levels. The question is, how big is the connection between those two developments?
It’s a topic getting more scrutiny as the world enters 2008 with the lowest grain stockpiles on record, near-record grain prices, and prospects for even tighter supplies as global demand rises for food and fuel.
Political instability over higher food prices is a key concern. Last year saw tortilla demonstrations in Mexico, pasta protests in Italy, and unrest in Pakistan over bread prices. Soybean prices, meanwhile, prompted demonstrations in front of Indonesia’s presidential palace. Food inflation in China is a major problem.
But the connection between the expansion of biofuels and higher global food prices is not clear cut, with the biofuels industry saying its impact is relatively small and biofuel critics saying that ethanol plants are driving up the price of corn and biodiesel producers are taking a bite out of the soybean crop.
“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,” says Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute (EPI), an environmental think tank in Washington. World population growth will require food for an additional 70 million people this year, the EPI said in a report last week.
Driven mostly by population growth, world grain consumption rose an average of 21 million tons per year from 1990 to 2005, the US Department of Agriculture reported this month. Demand for grain to make ethanol soared by 27 million tons last year, USDA reported.
“Putting [corn-ethanol] land back into food use would have a profound effect on the price of corn,” says Bruce Babcock, an economist at Iowa State University’s Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute. This year, he estimates, the US will produce about 8 billion gallons of ethanol. To do that, nearly one-fifth of the 80 million acres now devoted to corn will go to make ethanol.
That demand is helping to boost feed prices for cattle, as well as for crops like peas and beans because less land is devoted to growing them, he says.
In a counterpoint study last month by corn growers and the biofuels industry, higher corn prices were found to be only a small element in rising food costs overall - although higher energy costs for fuel to transport crops and grow them were a larger factor.
“This analysis puts to bed the argument that a growing domestic ethanol industry is solely responsible for rising consumer food prices,” Bruce Scherr, CEO of Informa Economics, a food and agriculture research and consulting firm based in Memphis, Tenn., said in a statement.
The “farm value” of commodity raw materials used in foods accounts for 19 percent of total US food costs, down from 37 percent in the 1973. Higher costs for labor, packaging, transportation, and energy were a “key driver” behind higher food costs, the report said.
While higher corn prices cause lower profit margins for livestock and poultry producers, “the statistical evidence does not support a conclusion that there is a strict ‘food-versus-fuel’ trade-off” driving consumer food prices higher, the study said.
Whatever the reason, prices for grains such as corn and soybeans are up. Despite a record US corn crop in fall 2007, corn prices are near a record high of about $5 a bushel in mid-January.
Because corn is feedstock, higher corn prices can affect food prices. The average price of milk rose 29 percent last year, for instance, and eggs 36 percent.
“More people are coming to the conclusion that there is a food-fuel link,” says Siwa Msangi of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), a Washington food-security research organization. “The historic pattern of the past, where food prices were in a long-term decline, could be at an end.”
But the major reason grain prices are spiking, he and others note, is fast-rising demand for higher-quality food like meat, poultry, and dairy products by the increasingly affluent people of China and India.
Still, biofuels play a role in higher grain prices, says Dr. Babcock.
His findings are bolstered by a study last month in which Mr. Msangi’s IFPRI estimated that future biofuel expansion could increase international corn prices between 26 and 72 percent by 2020, depending on how aggressive the expansion turns out to be.
Under two scenarios IFPRI examined, “the increase in crop prices resulting from expanded biofuel production was accompanied by a net decrease in the availability of … food” for the world’s poor, the study found.
As prices rise, of course, producers worldwide have incentive to grow more corn - or other crops, such as wheat, that might be in demand instead of corn.
But that’s not happening yet. In an apparent effort to moderate food prices and quell social unrest - which in turn curbs growers’ incentive to produce more - Russia this month is expected to place a 40 percent export tax on wheat. Argentina, too, has limited its wheat exports.
“The price of corn, soybeans, and livestock feed is not going to go down,” Babcock says. America’s new energy bill “pretty much guarantees that feed costs and land rent are going to stay high.”
© 2008 The Christian Science Monitor
i am reposting this comment also on the ANTARTICA MELTING article because i think it is also relevant considering the huge energy potential of it and its benefit of 100% sustanibility so here it is…
i have been reading the posts and am totally surprised i didn’t come across anybody even mentioning one of the best most SUSTANABLE solutions that humankind can reach for from the forgotten toolshed of history. This is called HEMP. industrial hemp is the most viable alternative to any of this ‘biofuel’ debate that is currently going on. HEMP is a plant that thrives under so many varying conditions as to allow its use and commercialization without undue hardship on ever depleted resources, at ever diverse localities. HEMP could be grown from Maine to Florida from California to Texas to Canada to India. If you get the chance, look for a little video that the US DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE made during WWII. its called HEMP FOR VICTORY and the Government denied its making of the video until one was furnished by the great Jack Herer. The HEMP plant has thousands of uses, for thousands of years, and to those that would say that biodiesel could be made from corn, yes this is true, but HEMP has more energy per acre than corn or many other ’short root’ plant do. HEMPs roots penetrate deep into the surface of the soil making the plant very drought resistant, unlike corn! The melting of the caps will send massive amounts of saltwater to coastal plains, but in other parts of the world drought will be the name of the game. Essentially with the miracle plants growth parameters many harvests could be produced in one growing season, unlike corn or soy or others out there. the advantage you get in this case is that you can ‘plow under’ the first crop into the ground and let sit early in the growing season. After two to three weeks in the soil the nutrients from this decaying matter is released into the topsoil making it increadably rich, THEREFORE NO NEED FOR HARMFUL AND DANGEROUS SYNTHETIC PESTICIDES OR HERBICIDES. promoting the NATURAL STATES OF DEFENCE OF ANY PLANT, hemp included, is the only viable way around using soil killing chemicals. (samples of topsoil taken from fields where caustic chemicals are used will prove that the soil itself is accually dead or dying ie no benefial and life giving microorganisms, the foundations of life) Hemp can reverse this process, INFACT hemp has been used around the areas affected by the CHERNOBLE nuclear disaster for the very purpose of naturally absorbing the radioactivness present in the soil (and this is just ONE EXAMPLE). I was doing some research the other night and discovered that the closest country to the US that has legal access to growing hemp (licensed and regulated obviously) is Canada. This plant should be the god given right of any human on earth to grow and utilize, whether for fiber, fuel, food, or medicine. Unfortunatly, toomany entrenched industries shake with fear whenever any meaningful change in the production and commercial utilization of the plant; because they would be out of business very quick like. Unfortunatly it might take an ‘end of days’ scenario for the power elites to relinquish their control over the plant and allow for its productive cultivation. the US economy would bounce right back from its 20 trillion dollar debt within a decade if it were legalized tomorrow. And i should probably mention this, because the issue often is confused by the less informed, but marijuana as a drug is relativly mild compared to just about any modern day pharmacutical. It is important to note that HEMP and marijuana differ because HEMP is mostly of the ruderalis family of cannabis ie very low thc content in relation to its mass. You could smoke a joint the size of a light pole made from hemp and still only end up with a mild headache. HEMP generally has a .1-2% thc content whereas its cannabis sativa cousin can produce the ‘flowers’ or ‘buds’ with upwards of 30% thc. so if anyone tells you that hemp is the same thing as the drug pot-just lying to you or has another agenda or most probably (and unfortunatly here) is totally ignorant of this critical and overlooked issue.
sorry if the script is rough around the edges, this could be called a ‘rough draft’ proposal.
also it is important to mention that corn as a biodiesel or ethanal alcohol is so energy intensive to produce it virtually guarantees that no positive net gain of energy is ever achieved. corn is a very poor choice for the making of fuels, and even worse for the environment because corns roots are very shallow, the growing of corn takes much out of the soil; that is why the ADMs and MONSANTOs love it so much. They can just sell more chemicals to spray on their frankenstein crops that are genetically engineered to be resistent to the very chemicals they spray on the fields. Its a never-ending cycle of fake-ass seeds, sprayed with chems, kills the soil, replant more fake-ass seeds to be sprayed with more chems. The Corps are the only ones who truely benefit from this practice, everyone else suffers (the farmers who have to buy new seeds from the company EVERY SINGLE GROWING SEASON BECAUSE THEY HAVE BEEN GENETICALLY ENGINEERED WITH A SUICIDE GENE ie THE PLANT CANNOT PRODUCE VIABLE SEED!!!, and the environment that must suffer through year after of year of chemical burn) IT IS THIS VERY PRACTICE THAT IS CAUSING THE BEE HIVE DEATH SYNDROME-bee farmers in the us have lost half the hives since 2004. the bees simply cannot live or for that matter thrive from the land that has been planted with frankenfood and sprayed to the point where the soil is completely dead. READ rachel carsons silent spring-a seminal book that raised the alarm to the use of chemicals in the environment. Although the book is near 40 years old it still rings true today, more than ever.
Shine a Light on these companies! tell everyone you know about their apocalyiptic-monopoliptic dirty deeds. THE ADMs and MONSANTOS of the world must pay!!! Peace
I highly advise folks read this essay, “Fermenting the Food Supply,” posted at theoildrum.com, http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2431
The Christian Science Monitor is not Christian or Scientific, discuss.
Common Dreams must be taking donations from capitalists because it keeps dredging up such articles questioning biofuels instead of questioning the capitalists themselves. The capitalists are over-exploiting the land and pushing over-consumption upon people who are desperately seeking a sustainable energy policy.
Consumption is limited by creating a cheap fast efficient rail transport network, limiting meat consumption to one meal per week, fully implementing cogeneration in energy conversion, burying “laissez-faire” capitalism and its campaign of infinite consumption, land/information guarantees to peasants, and various related policies. The results include total elimination of fossil fuel consumption (and carbon emissions) and associated resource wars, emancipation of the people (50 hrs/week to 15 hrs/week), and fulfilling livelihoods for all people, knowing their production is sustainable and self-determined, including the biofuels which will power internal combustion engines in high efficiency configurations in highly beneficial applications, limited in volume. For example, in areas with erratic wind/sun, hybrid diesel-electric rail cars can deliver 1500 miles per passenger per gallon and private cars 200 mpg. With consumption per capita (average today) cut by a factor of ten, and human population leveling off ASAP the earth can recover.
One small point that always gets left out of this back-lash against biofuels: distillers grains and other by-products make up half or more of each bushel of corn that gets turned into ethanol. Though corn ethanol is no great panacea, nor is it to blame for higher beef and chicken prices since the more ethanol that gets made the more cattle and chicken feed is left over. Or at least it’s safe to say that rather than 20% its more like 10% of the corn supply goes into fuel tanks. This is something the folks at the OILDRUM keep getting wrong. I doubt they have ever set foot in an ethanol plant and they are not interested in the honest questions.
A bigger culprit than biofuels is soda pop. Something better than 20% of the nations corn is turned into diabetes inducing soda. Gee, there’s a good use of our resources. If we outlawed using high fructose corn syrup today the price of corn would fall through the floor. Then could you feed the world with all that left over corn? Actually no, because most of the corn grown in this nation is not fit for human consumption. Furthermore, most of the corn farmers would instantly stop growing all that excess corn because they would go broke doing it, something most of them are all too familiar with thanks to the change in agricultural policy dating back to Nixon.
So the whole situation is a lot more complex than the media (even the CSM) would lead us to believe. Anyone who wants to know how deep the food production rabbit hole goes should read Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Polan.
Isbt there somthign better to turn into fuel then grain?
Seriosly there is so much methane producing trash just going to waste
VINBiodiesel–You are 100% incorrect about discussions at theoildrum.com leaving out the usable byproducts of biodiesel or ethanol production. Lots and lots of bandwidth was/is used for this debate. See for example the very long, spirited debate between Khosla and Rapier over ethanol promotion/feasibility, as listed here in this search results page, http://www.google.com/cse?cx=000874532052579887663%3Amezzmhxsexy&q=ethanol+rapier+khosla
And as the link I posted proves, the debate continues, AND the debate includes usable byproducts in order to determine the EROEI (Energy Return on Energy Invested), the most crucial component determining the viability of ALL biofuels. Too bad you’ve now made yourself as credible as George Bush.
Hi SSW–Yes, there is what’s called BioGas. Here’s an acticle detailing it and some of its obstacles, http://canada.theoildrum.com/node/2280
For others, there is this translaterd Swiss study, http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2976
From its Executive Summary:
“Although biofuels from renewable resources exist, a wider range of environmental impacts may result from their cultivation and processing than those from fossil fuels. These range from excessive fertilizer use and acidification of soil to a loss of biodiversity caused by clear cutting rainforest. Besides that, one should not forget that expanding agricultural energy production may lead to land use conflicts with other land uses such as food production or the conservation of natural areas. Therefore energetic efficiency and the attainable reduction in greenhouse gases should not be taken as the sole criteria for a holistic environmental evaluation of these alternative fuels.
“The objective of this study is to evaluate the environmental impacts in the whole life cycle of biofuels used in Switzerland. Firstly an action-oriented analysis of the environmental impacts of renewable energy carriers was to be developed. Secondly the objective was to draw up a “comprehensive environmental analysis” of the various biofuels, which could serve as a basis for enforcing the exemption of renewable fuels from the excise duty on diesel and petrol. In addition, the effects of using the fuel were to be compared with other ways to use bioenergy, such as heat and power generation.”
karlof1, please lighten up just a bit on VINbiodiesel.
At least his comment on turning corn into soda pop is 100% right on!
The corporations that make their money off the sick “agribusiness” economy in this country care not a whit what results from any of this as long as it produces sales and profits as well as ever-increasing demand for their products - poison to spray on crops, poison made from crops, poisonous crops…
As more of us turn to local and sustainably produced food for the health of our bodies, ethanol is a great alternative to use up corn so that the processors can continue to reap the benefits of farm subsidies and shift the blame to farmers who are going broke.
Perhaps the least discussed aspect of fossil fuel depletion is the concomitant decline in NPK fertilizers–the primary components of the Green Revolution, http://www.farmtalknewspaper.com/crops/local_story_022082331.html
What constitutes the “Green Revolution” is totally dependant on expanding quantities of inexpensive NPK fertilisers. Those resources are now in decline and increasing in price. The question then becomes, Should we use the remaining NPK to grow transport fuels or use them to feed humans?
Thank you homeward angel…every article I’ve read railing against biofuels and ethanol fails to mention hemp, the most environmentally sound and profitable crop that can be grown. It can be grown without chemicals or the cheap NPK fertilizers. If one was serious about saving the planet, they would know what a disservice it is to have this discussion without mentioning hemp. Its like having a discussion about how to best cut wood without mentioning the saw.
Although I personally think the ethanol from grain notion is pretty much a fraud and a scam, I do not blame this particular bit of idiocy for rising food prices. Overpopulation causes that. But I’m relaxed about that, because humanity has already chosen the “death rate” solution for population over the “birth rate” solution, and everything follows from that.
P.S. Since a majority of corn in Iowa (and maybe the whole US) is used to make “high fructose corn syrup,” which isn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, food, turning corn into high-proof-drinking-alcohol (ETOH, ethanol)isn’t actually impacting food output.
What about the project British Petroleum (BP)is working? Using the jatropha plant, native to southamerica will grow on basically non-productive soil for normal agricultural products with little rainfall in semi-tropical and tropical climates. Isn’t Africa ideal? Read about what BP is doing. Google jatropha and it appears to be the best source available for producing biofuels and will permit the conventional feedstocks to revert to just that.
karlof1
I must clarify. And thanks CAFarmer. Perhaps it is a difference of perspective. I began viewing the oildrum in early to mid 2007, coinciding with the widespread media backlash against biofuels, following a crazy media party for same. From your point of view I must have come late to the peak oil party but I was busy at the Global Warming shin dig and the backyard biofuel revolution planning meetings. The post you sent me starts in mid 2006! That’s ancient history in internet years. Come on, 100% wrong? Be a little more fair. I confess I don’t read every word but I visit the site every day which is more than most people, I’m sure. Find me one official post by any of the main or guest authors on the oil drum that gives biofuels, biodiesel or corn ethanol, anything better than a D minus, published within the last year, and I will retract my comment. The bottom line is that the consensus of the writers on the oildrum and the vast majority of the commenters is anti biofuels. Perhaps you are reading one of the local threads or something because I can’t remember one where biofuels got anything but disdain. When I defended biofuels, I got disdain so I ought to know. Perhaps there are a few commentators who quietly, meekly equivocate about it somewhere around comment 145 but the rest regularly write as if this is an open and shut case. Furthermore Pimentel is cited over and over again and to the rest of the energy savvy community he has long since been discredited. Anyone who relies chiefly upon the oildrum to formulate their opinion on this topic is bound to be misled. (If they read every word of every post and comment the way that you apparently do then perhaps they will be saved but honestly, who has time for that? Do you have a job?). That is what I come away with everyday after sampling your beloved oildrum. For all the good they could do, on this issue at least they are dangerously out of step with reality.
Your disparaging remark comparing me to Bush does little to increase your own credibility. I will not participate in the same FAE judgmental actions as yourself (Fundamental Attribute Error, look it up in Gladwell).
The stock market feeds cars not people. The international economic system serves cars and their drivers not people. Cars before people. What else is new? What’s new is that people with cars are seeing thru the 50s car culture consumer lie. Governments all over the world, not just Cuba, are questioning the wisdom of investments in bio-fuels. Only the US corporate sector monster (along with the current government it holds so tightly to it’s breast) has no vision - it’s one eye is blind.
GregO47–BP is practically the original proponent of the current prohibition on the Cannabis plant. dont believe a word on their website or any of the ‘research’ that has been funded by that evil Corp. i am sure that the plant they are suggesting doesnt come anywhere close to the versatility or vitality for that matter that INDUSTRIAL HEMP can offer mankind. It is more of this diversionary tactics taken by the OIL CORPS that are keeping the GOD-GIVEN PLANT a fair shot in the world market. I like to not label, but in your case i wont hesitate to call you another CORPO SHILL. Do you recieve checks from the oil lobby?
hempest-you are absolutly right about that. The only option we hemp proponents have at this point is EDUCATING ENOUGH PEOPLE about the varied uses of the plant and SEPERATING THE HIPPIE FROM THE HEMP. let people know that the Cannabis Ruderalis is very different from the Cannabis Sativa or Indica because the thc content of C.Ruderalis is so minimal .1-2% generally. The stock and leaves of any cannabis plant whether it be Sativa, Indica, or Ruderalis is very minimal as well, it is only the flowers of the Sativa and Indica varity that has enough THC to get you high, without a giant headache of course. Before any meaningful progress is gained in the biofuel debate we must force the entrenched interests into debate, whether at the checkout line or the dinner table, and MAKE THEM HEAR THE TRUTH ABOUT THE PLANT. did you know Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independance on HEMP PARCHMENT? or that George Washington and over half the people that signed the Declaration were growers of INDUSTRIAL HEMP?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
whether the debate is about warrantless wiretapping, newer more draconian laws put onto the books, corporate control of the media, or whatever; the most important thing we could all do to fight these uberrich entrenched interests is demand the legalization of the very plant that would cut over half of their harmful, unsustainable industries right off at the knees!! Unfortunatly it could take an end of days scenario before they willingly get off their high horse. take care now.
l understand in Cuba the have a 1957 Chevy converted to run on a sugar cane based fuel that gets over 50 miles to the gallon, unfortunately it runs on Bacardi Dark.
Our current energy consumption patterns, levels and lifestyles have been shaped by the past availability of petroleum and this is going to end. While still open-minded about biofuels such as ethanol, their production competes with food production. This competition is real enough to make me want to look at the demand side first, readjusting our lifestyles and energy consumption patterns and levels.
I didn’t even bother to read the article, or the comments, because the title disturbed me. I don’t believe it’s either sensible or fair to blame brothels for the recent increases in food. Certainly brothels can be a problem if they are not regulated in some manner, but to blame them for our economic problems is going too far. Higher food prices is not a health issue.
In spite of some religious groups theories, brothels have their place in society and we should leave them well enough alone and not attempt to place blame on them for our other problems. We should look upon them as a necessary learing facility if nothing else, but insure they are not a disturbance to quiet family neighborhoods or primary school locations. And that’s all I have to say about that.
KEM, quit making me laugh! I’m still getting over this cold and you’re making me cough up a storm!
I was wondering what folk thought of waste vegetable oil. I’m pretty unfamiliar with all the debates around biofuels but i have felt they were a step in the right direction…just a step mind you. The idea of hemp sounds interesting as well, for a lot of things as well as fuel(no history lesson on hemp needed here). I believe though that small and local is a part of the bigger solution. Small and local means a total re-evaluation of how we live though, and that will be the tough one. Nature does seem to have a tendency to curb our appetites though, as this embracing of biofuels by industry is proving. Let’s let the dialogue on this issue continue…it’ll be the only way to get to where we need to be. And on the way let’s liberate ourselves from this inhumanity of corporate/government oppression.
By the way, check out AlternativeEnergyCoalition.org It may be of interest to some of you.
Corn based ethanol rates right up there with the gas powered guitar. I thought we had learned the lessons of inappropriate technology long ago. Power politics and profit have twisted reason beyond recognition. Technological triumphalism is a dangerous myth. Bright schoolboys with slipsticks are becoming our modern day wrecking crews. Fake green sucks!
There are many reasons for the increases in food prices.
1. Oil has increased the energy costs to produce food.
2. Increased gas prices increase fertilizer costs
3. USD devaluation has made US made food more affordable and with increased global demand, the price in USD increases.
4. China and India increasing affluence, 1/3 of global population, has increased global demand, and alos prices
5. Increased use of crops being used for energy, ethanol and biodiesel, coupled with increasing exports, decrease supply for domestic consumption, and increasing prices
6. Increased demand for corn leads to more corn being produced (25% more in 2007 than 2006), and less of other crops, increasing their prices.
7. Higher corn prices means higher animal feed costs, and higher cost for meat and dairy products.
8. The 2002 Farm Act decreased the amount of land available to grow vegetables and fruit
9. GM seed price inflation due to agri-business cartel pricing practices
10. Higher farmer incomes and more wannabe farmers lead to higher rents
I don’t think you can single out any single reason but my feeling is the top 5 are the key.
Between 1974 and 2005, food prices in real terms supposedly decreased 75% (seems high, have to check, time permitting). Also, much of the price you pay at retail is mostly marketing costs, not what the farmer gets (corn farmers earn 19 cents on the dollar you pay at the supermarket, down from 37% in 1973)
less bees. Damn hippies always talking about hemp! Just because it grows top soil doesn’t mean we can ‘educate’ with it! It might be the best thing out there for industry and for a way to rid our selves from oil dependency but that doesn’t mean you will get the hippies away from it! If people want to educate themselves on it you have to remind then NOT to try it and think about it. Trying it doesn’t help you ‘think’ about it. It just makes you feel better. Its a sex substitute. It should be administered to all our repug senators so they don’t Foley around maybe, but other than that…I don’t know. The biggest problem is that you see some zit faced, red eyed kid touting his sublime knowledge on it and he doesn’t make sense. No one mentions the book the Emperor Wears No Clothes or what ever its called, no one mentions facts with a bibliography and nothing is from this country! The Aquifers in ancient Greece have hemp husk in the grout as a way to allow the elasticity to help them survive this long, but a thousand years is too long for americans. They need something NEW! On TV like Meth for weigh loss or something, that made it take off. I think the repugs are foolishly afraid they might really want to smoke their shirt if they found out it was hemp, but then they follow bushs orders and he might be flaming but he isn’t the ‘burning’ bush.
Jatropha is poisonous. Don’t we have enough of that “poison” stuff around?
Greg047
You can get four crops a year of hemp, with out seed, in your basement if you are good, worth a third the price of gold by weight, and you want to put a poison plant in Africa? There has got to be a smarter economic solution! Think of what you could to WITH seed!
Used vegetable oil is great! I run our company van on it and haven’t been to a gas station in months. We also turn the used veggie oil into bio-diesel to use in the diesel tank (running a vehicle on veggie oil requires 2 fuel tanks). BTW, used veggie oil is free and far, far less polluting then diesel (Rudolph Diesel invented the diesel engine to run on peanut oil). We are using for fuel what others are paying to throw away.
The use of hemp was also defeated by the corps that owned forests, because hemp makes cheaper paper than slow-growing trees.
The only thing I have against hemp is that it saved George HW Bush’s life in WWII, when he was shot down in the Pacific. His parachute rope was made from hemp.
Without hemp we might not have George W.
Given our history with exotic plant invaders, I think we should leave the Jatropha where it is native to. Hemp though is an interesting option - did you realize it was made illegal in the 20’s and 30’s in no small part because several billionaires (eg. the Hearst family) happened to own lots of pulp and paper plants and few farms? (The people of Hearst, Ontario, have some interesting articles from that time posted in their high school and town hall to this effect, wish I could get them on line). They used the money to demonize pot, and claimed hemp was indistinguishable. Then the US and Canadian government subsidized growth during WWII for use as ropes, only to re-illegalize (is that a word?) it later. What a mess.
The real question is what should food prices be. Over the last century, prices have gone down but the energy input to the land has increased. As energy sources went from horses to tractors, we could grow more food, and more cheaply. Now that those tractors (well, their gas) is getting expensive, perhaps this hidden “cheap energy subsidy” will go away. Wonder if it will make small rural farms more profitable and attractive?
Craig
I would say corn and soy demand may be a factor, but there are many other factors with greater influence. Once cellulose ethanol gets into production, there will be no controversy. You will have corn for food and stalks for fuel.
The majpor factor is, when the price of gasoline rose, the big corporations raised the price of food also, blaming it on the higher cost of fuel. Total shipping and delivery prices of food supplies are not just for fuel costs, in fact, vehicle fuel is is one of the lower costs of transportation.
Drivers, clerks, dispatchers, accountants, vehicle maintenace, vehicle parts, insurance and road taxes, etc, are far higher than the cost of fuel. Those costs did not go up in such a way as to have the price of a can of tomatoe soup almost double in a year. Most grocery corporations are owned and controlled by the same corprations that control almost everything in this country.
They raised the price of gasoline, the demand didn’t drop, they were making a killing and they started raising the price of food. It’s working. It’s workng so well, that now a high percentage of people don’t have money for anythng else and the shit has started to hit the fan.
Now a serious recession, or a depression looms and the stupid people who got the country into this disaster because of greed, don’t know what to do about it. Our knitwit president is going to send a $300 to $600 dollar check in April or May, to any who earn over $45,000 a year. Does anyone with half a brain believe that is going to pump up the economy? Our crazy media new announcers talk as if it will. I think a lot of people are having a problem of being mentallly sick in America. __ I’m serious.