Wonder Why Food Prices Are Skyrocketing?
I have pointed out for some time now that so-called biofuels are an environmental and economic disaster. Now The Guardian, of all places, reports on a leaked report they have obtained. The report, from the World Bank, says that the biofuels craze has driven the cost of food up by 75%.
Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.
The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.
The figure emphatically contradicts the US government's claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.
Senior development sources believe the report, completed in April, has not been published to avoid embarrassing President George Bush.
"It would put the World Bank in a political hot-spot with the White House," said one yesterday.
It isn't the White House, really. It is Congress and European governments that have driven this madness. (No, I am not letting the White House off the hook, either.) Biofuels are nothing more than a grossly inefficient energy transfer scheme - and a way for vested interests to make huge profits off the backs of the people.
There have been many voices raised against the insanity of biofuels, but Europe and the United States keep blindly riding the biofuel bandwagon.
"Without the increase in biofuels, global wheat and maize stocks would not have declined appreciably and price increases due to other factors would have been moderate," says the report. The basket of food prices examined in the study rose by 140% between 2002 and this February. The report estimates that higher energy and fertiliser prices accounted for an increase of only 15%, while biofuels have been responsible for a 75% jump over that period.
Speculators and special interests are making things worse. It has never been easier to rape the planet than it is today. Just say you're "saving the planet" and you have a license to destroy. The human cost of biofuels is too high. It is time to stop this madness.
Civilization, Energy, Environment | Gaius Friday, 4 July , 2008
By Ted Goldman, Friday, 4 July , 2008 @ 8:37 am
Americans are getting the type of foolish elected representatives they deserve. People of character, statesmanship, and common sense will not permit themselves to be subjected to the dehumanizing and degrading electoral process. Who can blame them? We are then left with….
What has God wrought for this great nation?
By lynndh, Friday, 4 July , 2008 @ 9:24 am
Last year in a vacation in France (wait, don’t laugh - we spent a very moving day at the Normandy beaches) we noticed field after field of Rape Seed (canola to you). NO food crops. And the same thing was happening in England too. Here it is corn. What can one say to such stupidity.
By Quilly Mammoth, Friday, 4 July , 2008 @ 12:57 pm
It’s going to get worse. Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma will not get the bumper crops this year that they have in the past several years to mitigate the strain on feed supplies. Too cold and too wet. Right now cattlemen and pig farmers are slowly selling down their herds. Expect _huge_ leaps next year in beef and pork prices. Not surprisingly it is the states which do not produce grain that are leading the way to non-food ethanol production. For example Georgia has promoted the building of plants which use a wide variety of stock…unfit peaches, pine chippings and so forth…that will soon produce about 215 million gallons of bio-fuel with little of it coming from corn.Whenever the federal government gets into supply it screws things up. There are millions of acres of land that simply aren’t suitable for grain production but are perfect for non-food crops that can be used in bio-fuel. They aren’t being used because there is no government incentive to do so.
By syn, Saturday, 5 July , 2008 @ 4:59 am
It is Congress and European governments that have driven this madness.
Come now, the people did not drive this madness?
Now why do you think it is that polticians and corporations are ‘Going Green’, the majority whined and screamed for atlernative energy so often and so loud they recevied all their demands; and with it, the high price of food.
This ‘biofuel’ push is no different than was the billion mercury light bulbs in America push…the stupid people demanded so governments obliged.
Stop behaving like children, we screwed ourselves with stupid dem bulbs..
By Charles D Quarles, Saturday, 5 July , 2008 @ 6:48 pm
Gaius,
Lay off speculators. Every market participant is a speculator. This particular canard has marxism/anti-capitalism written all over it. Manic and Panic are part and parcel of every market. Nevertheless, when you’re selling, a speculator is buying (supplying liquidity and giving you a better price than otherwise and more timely to boot). And when you’re buying, a speculator is selling and again is supplying liquidity and giving you a better price than otherwise and more timely to boot.
Governments can induce manias and panics (as can the fear-mongering drive-by media) deliberately in order to acquire power. Do not fall for the pea under the middle shell, watch the politicians’ hands. There’s a good economic explanation over at Carpe Diem.
–"It never ceases to amaze me that people,especially leftist politicians, think that you can wave a magic wand and repeal the laws of physics, chemistry, and economics."