Website review: January 24, 2008: Why Ethanol Produ...
daniel1066 discovered this in Alternative Energy
•17 reviews since Apr 10, 2008
alternative-energy
•earth-policy.org/Updates/2008/Update69.htm
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daniel1066 discovered 3 months ago- From the page: "We are witnessing the beginning of one of the great tragedies of history. 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. The world is facing the most severe food price inflation in history as grain and soybean prices climb to all-time highs. Wheat trading on the Chicago Board of Trade on December 17th breached the $10 per bushel level for the first time ever. In mid-January, corn was trading over $5 per bushel, close to its historic high. And on January 11th, soybeans traded at $13.42 per bushel, the highest price ever recorded. All these prices are double those of a year or two ago. "
- mokkikunta rated 2 months ago
- From the page: "Why Ethanol Production Will Drive World Food Prices Even Higher in 2008"
- marielaem rated 3 months ago
"Why Ethanol Production Will Drive World Food Prices Even Higher in 2008 Lester R. Brown
"We are witnessing the beginning of one of the great tragedies of history. 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. The world is facing the most severe food price inflation in history as grain and soybean prices climb to all-time highs. Wheat trading on the Chicago Board of Trade on December 17th breached the $10 per bushel level for the first time ever. In mid-January, corn was trading over $5 per bushel, close to its historic high. And on January 11th, soybeans traded at $13.42 per bushel, the highest price ever recorded. All these prices are double those of a year or two ago. As a result, prices of food products made directly from these commodities such as bread, pasta, and tortillas, and those made indirectly, such as pork, poultry, beef, milk, and eggs, are everywhere on the rise. In Mexico, corn meal prices are up 60 percent. In Pakistan, flour prices have doubled. China is facing rampant food price inflation, some of the worst in decades. In industrial countries, the higher processing and marketing share of food costs has softened the blow, but even so, prices of food staples are climbing. By late 2007, the U.S. price of a loaf of whole wheat bread was 12 percent higher than a year earlier, milk was up 29 percent, and eggs were up 36 percent. In Italy, pasta prices were up 20 percent. World grain prices have increased dramatically on three occasions since World War II, each time as a result of weather-reduced harvests. But now it is a matter of demand simply outpacing supply. In seven of the last eight years world grain production has fallen short of consumption. These annual shortfalls have been covered by drawing down grain stocks, but the carryover stocks - the amount in the bin when the new harvest begins - have now dropped to 54 days of world consumption, the lowest on record."
The above extract is taken from an article - sent to me by cheyenne5030 - which was written in January of this year.
How about finding an alternative to cars, instead of looking for an alternative to fuel.
- Glassterne rated 3 months ago
- Um. Hello? The US produces so much grain/soybeans that much of it goes to waste, because instead of releasing it into the market, it rots from disuse. This article is dumb. There are more reasons for the rise of food prices than that: namely, inflation. Not that there is a lack of corn or soybeans.
- yobaba rated 3 months ago
- The great danger of confronting peak oil and global warming isn't that we will sit on our collective asses and do nothing while civilization collapses, but that we will plunge after "solutions" that will make our problems even worse. Like believing we can replace gasoline with ethanol, the much-hyped biofuel that we make from corn. From 1990 to 2005, world grain consumption, driven largely by population growth and rising consumption of grain-based animal products, climbed by an average of 21 million tons per year. Then came the explosion in demand for grain used in U.S. ethanol distilleries, which jumped from 54 million tons in 2006 to 81 million tons in 2007. This 27-million-ton jump more than doubled the annual growth in world demand for grain. If 80% of the 62 distilleries now under construction are completed by late 2008, grain used to produce fuel for cars will climb to 114 million tons, or 28 percent of the projected 2008 U.S. grain harvest. Ethanol doesn't burn cleaner than gasoline, nor is it cheaper. Our current ethanol production represents only 3.5 percent of our gasoline consumption -- yet it consumes 20% of the entire U.S. corn crop, causing the price of corn to double in the last two years and raising the threat of hunger in the Third World. And the increasing acreage devoted to corn for ethanol means less land for other staple crops, giving farmers in South America an incentive to carve fields out of tropical forests that help to cool the planet and stave off global warming. Thanks in large part to the ethanol craze, the price of beef, poultry and pork in the United States rose more than 3% during the first five months of this year. In some parts of the country, hog farmers now find it cheaper to fatten their animals on trail mix, french fries and chocolate bars. And since America provides two-thirds of all global corn exports, the impact is being felt around the world. In Mexico, tortilla prices have jumped 60%, leading to food riots. In Europe, butter prices have spiked 40%, and pork prices in China are up 20%. By 2025, according to Runge and Senauer, rising food prices caused by the demand for ethanol and other biofuels could cause as many as 600 million more people to go hungry worldwide. Back in the US of A the irony is that taxpayers, by subsidizing the conversion of grain into ethanol, are in effect financing a rise in their own food prices. Corn is already the most subsidized crop in America, raking in a total of $51 billion in federal handouts between 1995 and 2005 -- twice as much as wheat subsidies and four times as much as soybeans. Ethanol itself is propped up by hefty subsidies, including a 51% per-gallon tax allowance for refiners. And a study by the International Institute for Sustainable Development found that ethanol subsidies amount to as much as $1.38 per gallon -- about half of ethanol's wholesale market price. Meanwhile the hedge-fund traders and speculators get richer and richer. MUST READS: http://www.alternet.org/environment/33969?comments=view&cID=99633&pI D=99599 http://www.autobloggreen.com/2006/10/23/epa-allows-dirtier-ethanol-prod uction-by-relaxing-environmental/ http://www.motherjones.com/news/special_repor ts/1995/07/ethanol.html http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/15635751/eth anol_scam_ethanol_hurts_the_environment_and_is_one_of_americas_biggest_political _boondoggles/1
- newwes rated 3 months ago
- From the page: "The irony is that U.S. taxpayers, by subsidizing the conversion of grain into ethanol, are in effect financing a rise in their own food prices. It is time to end the subsidy for converting food into fuel and to do it quickly before the deteriorating world food situation spirals out of control." Thank you environmental whacko nut cases. These subsidies are an atrocity against a free market, against nature, and against humanity. This is almost the perfect example of why governments should not be involved in attempting to alter human behavior through taxation and subsidies.
- BrassArt rated 3 months ago
- Thank you Eco-warriors.
