Lester Brown Issues Advisory - Ethanol is BAD, BAD NEWS
My eco-heroes, Lester Brown and his Earth Policy Insitute, have issued the following media advisory:
++
MASSIVE DIVERSION OF U.S. GRAIN TO FUEL FOR CARS IS RAISING WORLD FOOD PRICES
Corn prices have doubled over the last year. Wheat futures are trading at their highest level in 10 years. Rice prices are rising. Higher grain prices mean higher food prices. In Mexico, the price of tortillas has risen by 60 percent, driving thousands of angry Mexicans into the streets.
Food prices are rising worldwide. In the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects the wholesale price of chicken in 2007 will be 10 percent higher than in 2006, the price of a dozen eggs will be up a whopping 21 percent, and milk will be 14 percent higher. In China, pork prices are up 20 percent above a year earlier and eggs are up 16 percent. In India, a country of low-income consumers, the price of wheat has jumped 11 percent. And this is only the beginning.
In the past, food price rises have usually been weather-related and always temporary. This situation is different. As more and more fuel ethanol distilleries are built, world grain prices are starting to move up toward their oil-equivalent value in what appears to be the beginning of a long-term rise.
By 2008, close to one third of the U.S. grain harvest will be going to ethanol, reducing the amount available both for internal use and for export. The world’s breadbasket is fast becoming the U.S. fuel tank. Unless Washington restricts the grain used for fuel, it faces not only a consumer revolt at supermarket checkout counters at home, but also spreading political instability in low- and middle-income countries on a scale that could disrupt global economic progress.
Creating chaos in world grain markets is totally unnecessary. Raising auto fuel efficiency standards 20 percent would reduce oil use as much as converting the entire U.S. grain harvest into ethanol.
On Wednesday, Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute and author of Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble, will hold a telephone briefing for journalists on this emerging issue.
++
Once again, it’s worth mentioning that I will personally refund the purchase price of anyone who buys Brown’s Plan B 2.0 (link above) and does not find it the most instructive, realistic path toward a sustainable future in print. Go forth and buy the book - you have nothing to lose!
(dig how I nerded out and made my own eco-warning label. feel free to use it as I know you think it’s hella-cool, yo.)
Song of the day = Kool Keith’s ‘Lost in Space’. It’s a tenuous tie in, but how often do you get to hear Kool Keith on the web?
Tags: books, environment, news, Plan B
Check out “Barack Obama Inc. - The Birth of a Washington Machine” in the November, 2006 Harper’s at
http://www.harpers.org/BarackObamaInc.html. It’s a small part of the article, but at a speaking event, Obama was promoting the cross country trip of a law student who was driving a “flex-fuel” vehicle. The fuel was E85, which is 85% ethanol.
As senator of Illinois, Obama supports biofuels such as ethanol. And Archer Daniels Midland provided a company jet to Obama twice in his first year of office.
I mention this because it’s tempting to support Obama because he is so charismatic. But not if you care about the environment and the shortage of corn for tortillas in Mexico.