Corn-Based Biofuel is Economic, Climate Disaster Waiting to Happen

By Anastacia Mott Austin

Three scientists from the international research group CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research), reported this week that the United States’ increasing focus on growing corn for biofuels is impacting world food prices, driving them up during a time of world hunger.

One of CGIAR’s main priorities is to focus on ways in which to reduce world hunger, and its scientists say we’re going about it all wrong.

The scientists held a press conference this week calling for a temporary moratorium on the use of America’s corn and soybean crops for ethanol, saying that the emphasis on using foods for automobile fuel is causing corn and soybean prices to soar.

This is particularly bad timing for consumers already suffering at the gas pump, who now have to pay as much as 20 percent more for almost all foods.

In the United States, corn prices impact just about everything, from costs of dairy, eggs, meat, and a multitude of other food products. Corn, as you may have noticed, is an ingredient in just about every processed food in this country.

Corn prices rose over 60 percent between 2005 and 2007, according to a report from the World Bank. The reason? Ethanol. Touted as the miracle biofuel, ethanol is now big business, and 25 percent of all corn crops grown in the United States now goes toward ethanol production.

There’s bad news on the climate front as well. Ethanol production, originally developed to reduce reliance on foreign oil production and to reduce climate impact, is actually just as carbon-heavy as oil production. According to a report in Science magazine earlier this year, greenhouse gas emissions created by ethanol production match or even exceed those created by the fossil fuel industry.

Ironically, the same day CGIAR scientists were making a case for slowing ethanol production, President Bush said at a press conference that the United States needs to do the opposite. "The truth of the matter is, it's in our national interest that our farmers grow energy," said Bush. "As opposed to us purchasing energy from parts of the world that are unstable or may not like us."

Grain prices and fuel prices, once independent of each other, have begun to align together, a bad sign for an economy that is watching both gas and food prices rise beyond some folks’ abilities to cope. "he price of grain is now directly tied to the price of oil," said Lester Brown, president of the Washington-based research group Earth Policy Institute, to reporters at The Washington Post. "We used to have a grain economy and a fuel economy. But now they're beginning to fuse."

In short, any material, grain- or fossil-based, that can be turned into fuel, is going to rise in price.

CGIAR’s scientists say this is bad news for hungry people, and it’s time to slow production of ethanol in favor of feeding people. ""If you place a high value of food security for poor people, then the conclusion is clear that we step on the brake awhile," said Joachim von Braun, a representative of a branch of CGIAR. "If you place a high value on national energy security, other considerations come into play."