“Even when the price of food was low, 850 million people went hungry because they could not afford to buy it. With every increment in the price of flour or grain, several million more are pushed below the bread line.”
“If the governments promoting biofuels do not reverse their policies, the humanitarian impact will be greater than that of the Iraq war. Millions will be displaced and hundreds of millions more could go hungry.”
AN AGRICULTURAL CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY
Biofuels could kill more…
The Global Subsidies Initiative has updated its 2006 study of government support for ethanol and biodiesel in the United States. GSI estimates that “under existing policies, the biofuels industry will, in aggregate, benefit from support worth over $92 billion within the 2006-2012 time frame.” Energy provisions in the FY 2007 Farm Bill would add billions more, as would enactment of either President Bush’s 20 in 10 program (mandating 35 billion gallons of biofuel in the nation’s motor fuel supply by 2017) or the…
A new report by the International Trade & Agriculture Policy Council (IPC) examines the “early lessons” from U.S. and EU biofuels policy. The report’s language is bland, but the gist is clear. U.S. and EU policies are protectionist pork for the benefit of domestic farm interests. This vitiates their environmental value and discourages technological innovation.
Consider a few snippets:
A new report by the OECD’s Round Table on Sustainable Development, Biofuels: Is the Cure Worse than the Disease? is definitely not bullish on biofuels. Herewith a few highlights.
“The rush to energy crops threatens to cause food shortages and damage to biodiversity with limited benefits.”
Advocates of biofuel subsidies and mandates often cite Brazil’s experience with sugar cane-based ethanol as a success story and model for enhancing U.S. energy security and alleviating consumers’ pain at the pump. A new study by Brazilian economist Marcus Renata Xavier, commissioned by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, cautions against attempting to replicate Brazil’s biofuels program, for several reasons:
Massive expansion of the production of corn and other crops for fuel would have significant impacts on food supply and wildlife habitat, argues Dennis Avery in a new report published by the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
