Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 04/17/2008 8:28:29 PM PDT by kiriath_jearim
BERLIN (Reuters) - Bad agricultural policies and changing eating habits in developing nations are primarily to blame for rising food prices, not biofuel production as some critics claim, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Thursday.
Environmentalists and humanitarian groups have stepped up campaigning against biofuels, arguing they divert production away from food and animal feed while contributing to sharp rises in the price of cereals and milk products.
But Merkel, whose country is Europe's largest biofuel producer, said the rise in food prices was not mainly due to biofuels but to "inadequate agricultural policies in developing countries" as well as "insufficient forecasts of changes in nutritional habits" in emerging markets.
"If you travel to India these days, then a main part of the debate is about the 'second meal'," Merkel said.
"People are eating twice a day, and if a third of one billion people in India do that, it adds up to 300 million people. That's a large part of the European Union," she said.
"And if they suddenly consume twice as much food as before and if 100 million Chinese start drinking milk too, then of course our milk quotas become skewed, and much else too," she said referring to EU limits on dairy production.
Biofuels, which are seen by supporters as a way to increase energy security and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, are made mainly from food crops such as grains, oilseeds and sugar.
Critics argue there are few, if any, environmental benefits for so-called first generation biofuels. They have also been blamed for increasing grain demand and pushing up prices at a time of growing threat of famine in some parts of the world.
The FAO and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have said biofuels were "one of the main drivers" for forecasts of food price increases of 20 percent to 50 percent by 2016.
Boy, it’s nice when we see environmentalists eating themselves.
If you believe this, please contact me regarding purchase of an orange colored bridge in San Francisco.
The globalists and govenment will NEVER admit blame for their collossal f-ups. This will rank right up there with banning DDT.
So, to PO environmental Nazis, I need to be FOR biodiesel now?
I can handle that.
Much of Haiti is starving - while almost all of the cropland sits idle - ask yourself, why is that?
Rhodesia is starving - because of their own stupidity - why should we bail them out?
The list goes on....
Some seem to have another explanation why biofuels are not the answer to our energy problems.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,547609,00.html
Okay, I’m interested in the bridge, but only if you agree to paint it another color for me.
I guess they should starve themselves to death in order to make the earth a better place to live.
Lord give me patience.
Biofuel is bad policy.
Do we still need to subsidize farmers?
It is time for all of us to put our leader on “Ignore” and start using our own heads to figure things out. We are being massively lied to about everything now.
in ‘07 86 million acres of corn were planted in the US.
And we paid to keep 38m acres as “no till”.
Uh, what exactly are you talking about?
Do you mean the approximately 38 million acres in the CRP?
Or do you mean incentive for “no till,” as you wrote?
WRT to the CRP program: the biggest lobbying groups for CRP are not farmers or ranchers. It is hunting, game conservation and environmental groups that are the biggest lobbying force behind this program, as well as lobbying farmers to sign up for the program. Here’s an example of what I speak:
http://www.ducks.org/Conservation/GovernmentAffairs/1617/ConservationReserveProgram.html
If you’re complaining about no-till farming practices, then you really had better learn something about farming. No till practices were put into place after the Great Dust Bowl and the ‘Filthy Fifties” to keep our topsoil from blowing away. No-till farming is what has so radically increased American ag production since the 60’s - the combination of modern pesticides and no-till reduced or eliminated the need for the use of a plow to rid the field of weeds, which increased soil organic matter, tilth, reduced fuel consumption and wind erosion.
Heretic!! Burn her at the stake!!
it should be coloured as a rainbow anyhow.
I think 2016 has come and gone.
She does have a point, but these countries have always had bad policies. Why do they all start having food shortages now?
“I guess they should starve themselves to death in order to make the earth a better place to live.”
They will build Planned Parenhood clinics. /sarcasm
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