Food vs. Fuel and Impacts on Climate Change: Biofuels Under Siege
Concern about world food prices and shortages is causing law makers in both the EU and the US to consider either a moratorium or a cutback in biofuels production. In particular, ethanol produced from corn is being blamed as a significant contributor to the world food crisis. [summary]
International concerns over world food prices and shortages has recently triggered a major fuel-or-fuel debate. A UN official said recently that massive production of biofuels is “a crime against humanity” because of its impact on global food prices. In its April 7 cover story, Time Magazine, blasted the impact increased biofuels consumption may have on climate. While US Department of Agriculture economists point to a large array of factors contributing to the current constriction in basic food commodities like corn, wheat, and rice, citing regional drought, larger population demand, and increased cost of production because of rising fossil fuel costs, the attention biofuels has attracted means a rough passage for biofuels and may portend badly for their future use.
The Time Magazine article indicts biofuels for “dramatically accelerating global warming” because of clearing of tropical rain forests for cropland for sugarcane, soybeans, or other fuel crops. The article says the US’s increased production of corn for ethanol has caused farmers to plant fewer acres of soybeans. This, in turn, has caused the world-wide commodity price of soybeans to increase, “spurring a dramatic expansion of Brazilian agriculture, which is invading the Amazon at an increasingly alarming rate.” According to Time, deforestation accounts for 20 percent of all current carbon emissions. A Rhode Island-sized area of Brazil was deforested in 2007 alone.
What is most interesting is the intensity of the reaction of UN entities. Concern for food supply has led to what some feel is an overreaction to the role biofuels production may play, as compared to drought, cultivation and transportation costs, and demand. The UN’s Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food Jean Ziegler has warned that the world is headed “towards a very long period of riots” and conflict stemming from food shortages and price increases. He went on to say that in recent months, rising food costs have sparked violent protests in Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Haiti, Indonesia, the Ivory Coast, Madagascar, and Mauritania. In Pakistan and Thailand, army troops were deployed to prevent seizure of food from fields and warehouses, while price increases led to a general strike in Burkina Faso. Ziegler called on the International Monetary Fund to change its policies on agricultural subsidies and to stop supporting programs aimed exclusively at debt reduction. He went on to say that “international market speculation on food commodities must cease.”
While Mr. Ziegler’s views may represent an extreme in the current food debate, both he and Time Magazine raise (and at the very least exemplify) issues about biofuels development that must be addressed in the coming months if the promising role biofuels may play in addressing climate, security, and oil dependence is to be realized.
The first is question of whether US biofuels production is causing world food prices to rise dramatically. World Bank President Robert Zoellick seems to thinks so. At a news conference on April 11, he said that demand for ethanol and other biofuels is a "significant contributor" to soaring food prices around the world. The World Bank has projected that food prices will stay high or go even higher over the next couple of years, with biofuels a major factor in keeping them high. "Biofuels are no doubt a significant contributor," Zoellick says. "It is clearly the case that programs in Europe and the United States that have increased biofuels production have contributed to the added demand for food."
The second question that has been raised is whether the impact of biofuels on the environment may outweigh their benefits. In addition to Time’s concern about global warming, just last week the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) felt compelled to address these impacts after a period of relatively benign acceptance of biofuels’ potential environmental impacts. Among the issues are the increased impacts of nitrogen compounds on the environment stemming from use of nitrogen-based fertilizers and higher nitrogen emissions compared to conventional gasoline. According to Inside EPA, “adding to the concern is the expanded renewable fuels standard (RFS) that Congress included in the recently enacted energy law, which boosts the prior RFS of 15 billion gallons by 2012 to 36 billion gallons by 2022.”
We will address the food-or-fuel issue in future blogs, including the promise of fuel from cellulosic ethanol production, favored by the President and leading environmental organizations alike. Cellulosic ethanol feedstocks, such as pine slashings and switchgrass (the fast-growing plant made famous in the President’s State of the Union two years ago), do not directly compete in food markets. The promise of cellulosic ethanol remains bright, as organizations such as 25X25 have recently begun to reemphasize.
