Posted on 04/15/2008 11:40:52 AM PDT by stockpirate
The idea of turning farms into fuel plants seemed, for a time, like one of the answers to high global oil prices and supply worries. That strategy seemed to reach a high point last year when Congress mandated a fivefold increase in the use of biofuels.
But now a reaction is building against policies in the United States and Europe to promote ethanol and similar fuels, with political leaders from poor countries contending that these fuels are driving up food prices and starving poor people. Biofuels are fast becoming a new flash point in global diplomacy, putting pressure on Western politicians to reconsider their policies, even as they argue that biofuels are only one factor in the seemingly inexorable rise in food prices.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Envirowacko policies pushed by Democrats and Republicans are killing our economy:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/04/02/cstillwell.DTL
In 2006, the U.S. Government paid farmers to NOT grow corn on 35 million acres in this country.
Unbelievable.
There is a Conservation Reserve Program which largely directs subsidy payments to non-farmers to own farmland and to make sure that it is not leased or sold to farmers. In my part of the midwest, CRP land is largely owned by yuppies who use it for hunting preserves.
To be fair to the bureaucrats, they predicted that bio-fuels would cause a 10-15% price increase by themselves. They didn't claim that there couldn't be other factors that would also increase prices.
Bio-fuels make up less than 5% of our grain usage, and world grain production has actually been at record levels. Bio-fuels are not the only reason food prices have been soaring, and may very well only be responsible a for 10-15% price increase by themselves.
They are however, the main factors in the price increase caused directly by the government's intervention in the market for grains.
As poorer parts of the world experience a lot of economic growth, it's not surprising that the demand for grain is going up. Somewhat because people can afford to eat more, and can afford to support larger families, but also because people can afford more meat, and it does take more grain to feed the livestock we eat than it takes to feed people.
I'm not suggesting we all become vegetarians. I'm just saying that there are other market forces that are also driving up the price of food.
The government should concentrate on removing their contributions to the increase in food prices, but I wouldn't expect that will have more of an effect of slowing the growth in food prices, not reversing that growth.
That’s a lot of food and ethanol...
I can not “be fair to the bureaucrats”. Tell me which of those vaunted bureaucrats warned last year that food prices were going to skyrocket as a result of all these factors which were well known? Where was the warning in the bureaucrat’s acknowledgment that the 10% increase would only be the tip of the iceberg, and that food shortages were coming, and that the price of food in 2008 would be double the price of 2007? Did they suggest then (as I was warning) that scaling back the stupid drive to burn food might make sense? NO. We’re talking a 300% !!! increase in corn prices since Mar.2005, when SnObama was busy giving hosannas to the ethanol industry! The ethanol was going to “raise the price of corn by $0.25/bu” according to the “experts” then. Bull predictions made in a vacuum by the vacuous.
Now, I realize that there are other factors at play, too, as I noted in my last post. However, this GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIZED drive to DISTORT THE MARKETS in order to burn food has contributed much more to the higher food cost than $0.25, or “10-15%”.
People are DYING all over the world because of this, and that has just begun. Meanwhile, we burn the food.
Notice how everyone is saying “We” are turning “their” food into fuel and not, why aren’t “we” drilling our own oil so there will be more food for “them”.
Understandable.
Tell me which of those vaunted bureaucrats warned last year that food prices were going to skyrocket as a result of all these factors which were well known?
There have been a number of bureaucrats that have been warning about rising food costs, but they were ignored by those supporting bio-fuels because they thought that advancing their agenda was more important than the costs.
There's also the fact that the people most likely to accurately predict how high food costs would rise (which isn't nearly as easy without the benefit of hindsight), are generally conservatives.
Even if a conservative thinks that food prices are going to rise, he isn't likely to want the government to try and do anything about it.
The government should quit trying to force bio-fuels on us, but as for the other factors that are driving up food prices, those aren't something they should be trying to fix.
They can try and help inform farmers and the general population of the likelihood that food prices are going to rise so they can make informed choices, but the government stepping in and trying to fix such problems usually makes them worse.
People are DYING all over the world because of this, and that has just begun. Meanwhile, we burn the food.
People are dying all over the world, because they are unable to support themselves. In most of those cases the countries are capable of supporting themselves, but those controlling the country are unwilling to take the steps to make them self sufficient because it would weaken their control, and the people lack the knowledge or the power to force change.
People in Zimbabwe aren't starving because what was formerly the breadbasket of Africa isn't capable of producing enough food to feed them.
Venezuela isn't having food shortages because the aren't able to produce enough food.
North Koreans aren't starving because their country is incapable of feeding itself.
We need our government to quit screwing with the free market with regards to bio-fuels (and most everything else as well).
We don't want our government to step in and try and fix the global food shortage.
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