Biofuels: What’s Really Driving Food Prices?
Anyone who pays even casual attention to the biofuels industry has come across the “food versus fuel” argument, i.e., that the rise in biofuels comes at the expense of the world fuel supply. But as shown in this article: “What’s Really Driving Food Prices?” this is specious.
According to several of the speakers at the Renewable Energy Policy Forum I attended recently, the concept came from a brilliant albeit dishonest PR campaign in which Big Oil got together with a few of the most powerful people in Big Food and fabricated this credible but grossly distorted story. In fact, the real cost of food has a far greater connection to the cost of liquid fuels required to plant, fertilize, irrigate, harvest, process, and ship food. Biofuels’ effect in expanding the supply of fuel lowers the price of food far more than competing with the food supply increases it. Moreover, the biofuels industry has turned away from the use of edible crops (e.g, corn and soy beans) in favor of cellulosic feedstocks (e.g., corn stover). I hope readers will take a few minutes to read the article linked above, and familiarize themselves with the truth here.
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