During the last few months, a scary trend has popped up around the world. No, we’re not writing about the Soccer-Mullet. We’re addressing the lack of affordable food in the international marketplace.
In case you haven’t noticed, the prices of staple foods like rice, corn and soybean have increased exorbitantly during the past several months. As a result, poorer underdeveloped countries like Haiti, Cameroon and Sierra Leone have erupted in violence and rioters have even tried overthrowing their governments.
Even wealthier countries like the U.S. have begun experiencing scary reactions to the increase in food prices and consequential shortages.
Last week food distributors across the country started limiting the amount of food customers could purchase in bulk in an attempt to prohibit hoarding.
Although there are many factors contributing to the rise in food prices, one of the biggest reasons emerging is subsidized biofuel production.
For generations, the United States has been the breadbasket to the world. Our abundance of staple crops like corn and wheat has allowed us to export food at reasonable prices, as well as keep the interior of our own borders well-stocked with cheap food.
Because of our government’s increased desire to combat global warming through corn-based ethanol production, though, 30 percent of our domestic corn supply now goes toward making fuel rather than to the nation’s dinner tables, The New York Sun reports.
In a 2006 article in Harvard Magazine, Harvard professor of environmental studies Michael McElroy discussed how this cut to the supply of corn as food has generated a much stronger demand for the product as a food source.
In the article, “The Ethanol Illusion,” McElroy wrote, “With increasing use of corn and sugar cane for fuel, a rise in related food prices would seem inevitable.”
Essentially, it’s the simple economic principles of supply and demand: High demand for corn as a food means higher prices for the product to consumers.
Certainly, biofuels are not entirely to blame for skyrocketing prices. The current cost of gas is forcing many companies to raise food prices to compensate for transportation costs.
Because biofuel production actually depletes the amount of available corn people can eat, however, some groups like the International Food Policy Research Institute believe that ethanol production is one of the biggest contributors to the rise in staple crop prices. It estimate that one-quarter to one-third of the recent price hikes are a direct result of ethanol production.
Although the Daily Forty-Niner supports the government using its power to help stop global warming, this subsidized biofuel stuff needs to stop.
Next to MySpace, food is one of the most important things a person needs in his or her life to survive. When people are unable to attain enough food to survive because prices are too high, the global consequences can be disastrous.
Right now, we’re already getting a taste of what negative and dangerous effects high food prices can have – global food riots.
If we continue to burn our food in the gas tank, the violence will spread throughout the world and famine will undoubtedly follow.
There must be other, more sustainable ways our nation can sate our fossil fuel dependency. Making a jaunt to the local supermarket in our SUVs shouldn’t come at the cost of starving a family on the other side of the globe.
Until we find alternate ways to run our cars and trucks, using corn, rice and soybean for fuel is only creating more problems than it’s solving.
In a news conference following his recent United Nations speech on the issue of corn-based ethanol, Bolivian President Evo Morales said, “Life first and cars second.”
We all should try to learn something from that statement.
