subsidized biofuels and the food crisis

From the AP's Seth Borenstein in the C-J...

Some top international food scientists recommended yesterday that food-based biofuels, such as ethanol, no longer be produced, saying that step would cut corn prices by 20 percent at a time when the world has a food crisis.

But even as the scientists were calling for a moratorium, President Bush urged the opposite. He declared that the United States should increase ethanol use because of national energy security and high gasoline prices.

OK, that's one more reason to oppose Bush. He seems like a nice-enough guy, but wow...

The conflicting messages highlighted the ongoing debate over food and fuel needs...

If leading nations stopped biofuel use this year, it would lead to a price decline in corn by about 20 percent and wheat by about 10 percent from 2009-10, said Joachim von Braun. He heads the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, an arm of CGIAR. The United States is the biggest biofuel producer.

Von Braun and the other scientists said work should be stepped up on the use of nongrain crops, such as switchgrass, for biofuel....

Energy security is what Bush emphasized at his news conference. When asked about the conflict with world hunger and the rising cost of food at home, he said the high price of gasoline would "spur more investment in ethanol as an alternative to gasoline."...

Yes, but what about our government's subsidies for ethanol-- and its tariffs against Brazilian sugar-based ethanol?

A World Bank study has estimated that corn prices "rose by over 60 percent from 2005-07, largely because of the U.S. ethanol program" combined with market forces.

Other nations, such as South Africa, have stopped or slowed the push to ethanol. But because the United States is the biggest producer, if it does nothing, other nations' efforts will not amount to much, von Braun said.

Many issues are causing the food crisis, he said, especially market forces and speculation, but biofuel use also ranks high among the causes.

Scientists say the diversion of corn and soybeans for fuel contributes to higher prices and removes farmland from food production. Ethanol supporters say the corn used for fuels is the type only fed to livestock. But other experts say it leads to higher livestock feed prices, thus higher food prices.

An International Food Policy Research Institute analysis to be released soon blames 30 percent of the overall food price rise from 2000 to 2007 on biofuels. An industry-funded study put the rise at 4 percent.