GreenCar Depot Blog

In the last few weeks, I’ve read at least 10 magazine and newspaper articles about the rising cost of food, and the evil culprit: biofuels! I listened to a radio segment on NPR that blamed biofuels for the rising costs of tortillas in Mexico.

I am not hear to claim that the production of corn and soy based biofuels has not contributed to rising food costs, but there are many other reasons for the sudden increase in prices. Pressure from China and India, high fuel prices, a dramatic surge in commodities investment because of our recession, and other factors have all contributed. Somehow these media stories fail to mention that the corn and soy used for biofuel production is almost entirely used for livestock feed, yet it is blamed for high rice prices and the cost of tortillas made from different types of corn. We have had a surplus of corn production in this country for years and we continue to pay farmers through subsidies so they will not plant soy and corn. In short, food prices have, and will continue to be a result of complex geopolitics. The pressure from ethanol production has no doubt had some impact on the price of cattle feed and indirectly on some foods, but to a much lesser degree than is being promoted by the media.

We are all suffering as a result of the high fuel prices and recession in this country, and global warming has the potential to cause harm that we have not yet realized. What is critically important now is to have a balanced and rational approach to reduce CO2 and the use of petroleum in order to curtail global warming and calm the rapid rise of fuel costs. To do that, the use of electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids using cellulosic E85, high-mpg clean diesels using algae-biodiesel, and the use of algae-biodiesel and bio-CNG in heavy duty trucks, ships, and trains, makes for an attainable and exciting goal in the very near future. In the mean time, the use of corn-E85, soy-biodiesel, and petroleum-CNG enables us to move to the infrastructure now and create the demand that will support the new industry, instead of waiting to build the infrastructure, waisting critical years in the process and potentially undermining the entire program.

We desperately need public support for a diverse and effective alternative fuels program in the transportation sector, understanding that nothing is a silver bullet and that all have some short term hurdles and costs. I hope we can work together towards that end, and I hope everyone will consider the true data carefully when forming an opinion about the food vs biofuel question.