According to reports based on United States Department of Agriculture information one quarter of all US grain crops now go into manufacturing ethanol based bio-fuel. This is a result of bio fuel programs and incentives started in the Bush administration. The impact is now showing up in world food supplies and costs.
Studies show that the grains grown in 2009 and used for fuel was enough to feed 300 million people for one year at average world consumption levels .
"Continuing to divert more food to fuel, as is now mandated by the US federal government in its renewable fuel standard, will likely only reinforce the disturbing rise in world hunger. By subsidizing the production of ethanol to the tune of some $6bn each year, US taxpayers are in effect subsidizing rising food bills at home and around the world," said Lester Brown, the director of the Earth Policy Institute, a Washington think-tank that conducted the analysis.
read the story at guardian.co.uk
News items like this remind me of Milo's cotton problems in the film version of Catch-22. So much energy spent - and for what?
ReplyDeleteHey ,Leon !
ReplyDeleteI think some biofuel could be good when processed from what might otherwise have been wasted "stuff" and doesn't take away what might otherwise have been food.I have heard its complicated.