Comments on: Biofuels and food prices: Running the numbers

A report from clean-tech analysis firm New Energy Finance quantifies the relative impact that booming biofuels production has on food.

[blsith]

What about the fact that we have government subsidies to have farmers leave huge acres barren? These are corn fields that could be used to increase supply, but instead there is incentive to not produce as much!

So instead of letting supply and demand call for additional corn production because of the increased profit of making more corn, the big farm companies just rake in cash by doing nothing... that's our tax dollars at work, and the "new look" congress wants to raise taxes to help stimulate the economy... WHOOPIE!

[blsith]

What about the fact that we have government subsidies to have farmers leave huge acres barren? These are corn fields that could be used to increase supply, but instead there is incentive to not produce as much!

So instead of letting supply and demand call for additional corn production because of the increased profit of making more corn, the big farm companies just rake in cash by doing nothing... that's our tax dollars at work, and the "new look" congress wants to raise taxes to help stimulate the economy... WHOOPIE!

[blsith]

What about the fact that we have government subsidies to have farmers leave huge acres barren? These are corn fields that could be used to increase supply, but instead there is incentive to not produce as much!

So instead of letting supply and demand call for additional corn production because of the increased profit of making more corn, the big farm companies just rake in cash by doing nothing... that's our tax dollars at work, and the "new look" congress wants to raise taxes to help stimulate the economy... WHOOPIE!

[planethouse]

Ethanol reduces smog pollution
Ethanol has a positive energy balance.
In the past five years, ethanol plants have reduced water consumption by 26%, electricity usage by 16% and total energy use by 22%
Oil and gasoline prices would be about 15% higher, or $4.14 a gallon at today?s prices, if biofuel producers weren't increasing their output.
Making corn ethanol the scapegoat for the high price of food is unwarranted
A 10 percent gain in energy prices could contribute 5.2 percent to retail food prices.
The ethanol industry is in it?s infancy with technological advances like cellulosic feedstocks (non-corn) poised to revolutionize the marketplace and greatly improve efficiency
The overwhelming majority of U.S. corn, including exported corn, feeds livestock?not humans.
Ethanol reduces formaldehyde emissions.

[MidwestMan]

Those fields are not left "Barren". The conservation reserve program pays LANDOWNERS (not always farmers) to plant native grasses and trees benefit the environment. If we take those acres out and put back into production I'm sure you'll be complaining that we are farming every nook and cranny and that it is harming the environment. We are still forecasted to have carryover stock sof grain with the current yield and acreage projections. So you don't need to worry about a shortage. There just happens to be more people wanting comodities today and that increased demand is causing an increase in price. Basic economics.

[billmosby]

Well, of course ethanol production is not the dominant factor in food prices. Not yet- we're just barely getting started.

Do you think the picture might look a little different after the ethanol production rate ramps up by the factor of 5 or 6 that the incentives are aiming for?

[Devans0]

Leaving fields to regenerate saves soil and has meant MORE crop production than by mindlessly over cropping and depleting soil.
It takes years or even decades to build ethanol plants. The retrofit of distilling cellulose based materials such as switchgrass or algae is an easy retrofit for a plant. Once fermenting has occurred and solids are screened out, the wine and distilling is the same. Our choice is to keep going as we are or to move to renewable energy that we can make.

[Devans0]

A common misconception being pushed is that food is being taken out of production by making ethanol. Fermenting uses the starch in grain. The remaining spelt grain is more nutritious because of the added brewers yeast. Animals do not digest starch, they excrete it as waste product. What everyone is overlooking is that there will be a glut of animal fodder for sale.
A large part of the new food shortages is from the new wealth in developing countries, and their people wanting animal protein in their diets. Farmers are diverting grain to feed animals because of the higher profits. The person who will save the world will be the person who figures how to make "peasant cakes" from spelt grains. With apologies for stealing M. Antoinette's quote.

[c|net Reader]

Corrections

Spelt is a kind of wheat. It is not created by adding brewer's yeast to what remains after removing starch from some grain.

Marie Antoinette never said, "Let them eat cake." The mistranslated and misattributed remark was from Maria Theresa a hundred years before. She said, "Let them eat brioche." (Brioche is not cake, nor is it bread.)

[billmosby]

Thanks for enlightening us, Devans0. So we can all just eat beef, then. Or if we get tired of that, maybe we'll start to enjoy eating the spelt grain itself.

Not enough land, not nearly enough, if ethanol is economic enough to catch on. Simple math. If it's profitable, ethanol feedstocks will displace food crops until the income from each is in balance, and much more expensive than now.

The only reason food is not being taken out of production now is that ethanol is being produced in only small amounts- only about 6 percent of the gasoline volume. When it's 30 percent, the impact will be very apparent. If we try to get E85 everywhere, we'll be importing most of our food.

Oh, and thanks for the M. Antoinette image. I couldn't have thought of a nicer touch, myself. Let them eat spelt, indeed.

[twestley]

Certainly, an organization described as "clean-energy research firm New Energy Finance" has no bias toward clean energy or against oil. Many economists and organizations have looked into the cause of higher food prices. We have a different answer from each of them.

[sweetnsnappy]

The problem with any biofuel is that it still loads more CO2 into the atmosphere. Increasing corn production increases runoff into the Mississippi watershed and increases the size of the "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico.
Money is an abstract concept; food isn't. The only solution is to travel less, decrease the distance from which we get our basic necessities, and especially squander less. It isn't about saving the Earth--the Earth will be here regardless--it's about preserving the Earth's ability to tolerate our presence on it and it's ability to sustain us.