SubscribePresident Bush has linked higher food prices to higher demand from India and China, but the leaked World Bank study disputes that: "Rapid income growth in developing countries has not led to large increases in global grain consumption and was not a major factor responsible for the large price increases."
Even successive droughts in Australia, calculates the report, have had a marginal impact. Instead, it argues that the EU and US drive for biofuels has had by far the biggest impact on food supply and prices.
It argues that production of biofuels has distorted food markets in three main ways. First, it has diverted grain away from food for fuel, with over a third of US corn now used to produce ethanol and about half of vegetable oils in the EU going towards the production of biodiesel. Second, farmers have been encouraged to set land aside for biofuel production. Third, it has sparked financial speculation in grains, driving prices up higher.So, those first two factors are actual supply and demand, but that third factor could be reduced if we didn't have all this spare capital sloshing around creating bubble after bubble. Correct me if I'm wrong here. Is there some way to keep the expectation of profit from raising the actual prices of food commodities on ethical grounds? Housing was bad enough. Also, this is why we cannot privatize water.
Recently, Patzek published a fifty-page study on the subject in the journal Critical Reviews in Plant Science. This time, he factored in the myriad energy inputs required by industrial agriculture, from the amount of fuel used to produce fertilizers and corn seeds to the transportation and wastewater disposal costs. All told, he believes that the cumulative energy consumed in corn farming and ethanol production is six times greater than what the end product provides your car engine in terms of power.Also 1) Ethanol Fuel from Corn Faulted as ‘Unsustainable Subsidized Food Burning’
Adding up the energy costs of corn production and its conversion to ethanol, 131,000 BTUs are needed to make 1 gallon of ethanol. One gallon of ethanol has an energy value of only 77,000 BTU. "Put another way", Pimentel says, "about 70 percent more energy is required to produce ethanol than the energy that actually is in ethanol. Every time you make 1 gallon of ethanol, there is a net energy loss of 54,000 BTU".2) "The report estimates that higher energy and fertiliser prices accounted for an increase of only 15%, while biofuels have been responsible for a 75% jump over that period."
Total Fuel Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Gasoline and Alternative Transportation Fuels - Unweighted millimoles per Vehicle Mile Traveled:That looks OK, but when you scroll down to the bar graph (Figure ES1) in the summary, Ethanol releases more CO2 per vehicle mile than any of the other fuels. It looks like they're factoring in CO2 from production to get that, but somebody more versed in this stuff could say for sure.
Carbon Dioxide (CO2): Gasoline: 7,900; Ethanol From Corn: 7,400
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posted by jeffburdges at 7:05 AM on July 5, 2008 [2 favorites]