Biofuels to result in starvation
February 13th, 2008 by Jim JustQuoting verbatim from the February 11 Peak Oil Review:
“US wheat inventories have now reached a 60-year low and wheat prices have risen by 50 percent in the past month. Global wheat stocks are expected to fall to a 30-year low shortly. With global oil production relatively stagnant as the demand for more oil from Asia and the Middle East continues to grow, biofuels production has been plugging some of the gap.
“Food and energy are converging so that to a considerable extent they can be used interchangeably as dictated by market forces. In the last six years, land for biofuels has increased from 12 to 80 million hectares worldwide as subsidies and national policies mandating their use are driving the biofuels substitution for oil. The US is offering subsidies of $.50 to $1 per gallon and the EU is attempting to reach a 10 percent biofuels target in the next three years.
“Many knowledgeable observers are worried and are predicting that famines will break out in the underdeveloped world during the next 18 to 24 months, due to declining availability of grains for export and worsening climatic conditions. The recent snows in China are believed to have caused considerable crop damage and Beijing is becoming increasingly concerned about the prospects for feeding its 1.3 billion people.
“All this suggests that policies mandating the use of biofuels and biofuel subsidies may have a very short half-life as the reality of inadequate food supplies overcomes cries of “energy independence.” The elimination of mandates and subsidies would put more pressure on petroleum products and force prices still higher.”
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the same thing, but more succinctly:
“People literally will starve to death in parts of the world, it always happens when food prices go up.”