Ethanol means higher food prices

The energy bill signed by President George W. Bush on Dec. 18, makes a big show of helping the environment, but only adds to the assault on both humanity and the earth, while throwing more assistance to the energy industry.

The bill mandates a huge increase in the production of ethanol, a plant-based substitute for fossil fuels, to 36 billion gallons by 2022. This is a nearly fivefold increase from current ethanol production levels. The bipartisan bill, passed by Congress with a 314 to 100 vote, also sets new higher standards for fuel economy on vehicles and sets a goal of eliminating incandescent light bulbs within ten years.

The bill was stripped of provisions requiring utility companies to develop and use renewal sources of electricity. Nor does it include government subsidies for the development of solar, wind, geothermal and other sources of alternative energy, subsidies which would have been paid for by higher taxes on oil companies, most of which are making record profits.

In signing the new law, Bush stated, “[Today] [w]e make a major step toward reducing our dependence on oil, confronting global climate change, expanding production of renewable fuels and giving future generations a nation that is stronger, cleaner and more secure.”

But is this really the case?

Millions of people in the U.S. are deeply concerned about environmental problems caused by carbon emissions from fossil fuels, the depletion of the earth’s ozone layer, and the horrendous destruction to the planet caused by global warming. Does the new energy bill really provide a solution to begin to turn around the deleterious effects caused by pollution and corporate-based destruction of the environment? Nothing could be further from the truth.

The energy bill has essentially mandated the creation of an entirely new oil-using industry, one that even its advocates admit they have no idea how to follow through on. The “plan” is to develop a huge new industry to convert agricultural waste and plant materials, primarily from corn, into fuel for automobiles.

Hundreds of new factories will be required, along with an infrastructure capable of hauling billions of tons of biomass or plant material, mostly corn, by gasoline-driven transport. Capitalists will need to invest billions of dollars for an uncertain return on a technology that is still in its infancy, a technology that many scientists say may have serious as-yet-unknown repercussions in terms of soil erosion, water runoff and soil fertility.

Estimates vary as to corn tonnage necessary for each gallon of ethanol produced. The Sierra Club notes that currently one ton of corn equals 39.4 bushels, which equals 110 gallons of ethanol. Millions more gallons of water will be required to produce the corn needed to make ethanol.

Already the ethanol boom has proven disastrous to many farmers and the people who eat the food they produce. Corn production is skyrocketing as U.S. farmers and agribusiness seek to cash in on the demand for more ethanol. Ninety-four million acres of corn were planted in 2007, the most since World War II, producing a record crop of 13.2 billion bushels. Wheat and soybean prices are near record highs while soybean production is down sixteen percent from 2006 in order to make room for growing corn. Feed costs are up 25 to 30 percent from last year as farmers look for other crops to feed livestock.

With prices at record highs, consumer food prices have increased over five percent in the last year alone as the cost of dairy products and meat spirals upward. The Consumer Price Index reveals dairy prices up 14 percent; meat, poultry and fish up 5.4 percent; cereal up 5.2 percent; and fruits and vegetables up 4.3 percent. Some analysts believe food prices may increase another three to four percent next year.

In the meantime, world food supplies are dwindling fast while food prices globally are reaching historic high levels, according to Jacques Diouf, head of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. A New York Times article on Dec. 18 stated, “The agency’s food price index rose by more than 40 percent this year, compared with 9 percent the year before—a rate that was already unacceptable, Mr. Diouf said. New figures show that the total cost of food imported by the [poorest] countries rose 25 percent in the last year. ...

“At the same time, reserves of cereals are severely depleted, the agency’s records show. World wheat stores declined 11 percent this year, to the lowest level since 1980.” Diouf stated that prices of wheat and oilseeds are at record highs, with wheat prices having risen 52 percent since last year.

FAO statistics paint a grim picture on world hunger and malnutrition. Some 854 million people around the world do not have enough food to eat. One in twelve people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5. Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger (www.thinkquest.org). Many parts of the world face a severe shortage in potable water.

The new U.S. energy plan does nothing to alleviate the suffering of millions of people here and around the world who face poverty, hunger, malnutrition, low wages and skyrocketing food prices, high energy costs and a dwindling water supply. The profit-driven mandate for more ethanol is not based on concern for the environment, but on pumping billions of dollars into a newfangled industry that will itself use even more fossil fuels. Ethanol production will use agricultural land and water for fuel instead of food for human consumption, and place an even greater strain on the planet’s people and resources.

A rational planned system based on meeting the needs of the people and saving the earth from environmental catastrophe is needed now more than ever.